Newness

Took a bit of a break from blogging. Too many changes, and venting here would have not been wise. :) So... Here I am, back to the land of blogging. at least, intermittently.

Work is busybusy and every day I'm exhausted when I get home. Remind me when I'm starting my family, that I will be blessed to have children one or two at a time. No need to have a house of 10 two year olds all at one time. :)

School is hard, as grad school should be. It's hard working fulltime and going to school fulltime and being a fulltime girlfriend and trying to have any other kind of life. But I have a very supportive man in my life, who makes sure I get my homework done.

Beau's house is coming together beautifully. Here, here's a picture of me cooking dinner last week.

The kitchen and living room are this fun gold yellow color, "palomino gold". :) looks great with the red accents, the chocolate brown from the other room, the dark wood table and chairs (table from donations from the community center, chairs from sam's club), and the caramel colored sofa from rooms to go.

Here's the living room, as viewed from the front room/entry room. big couch is perfect for the groups of people that come hang out at random times.

All in all, my life is getting a rhythm to it, and I am once again looking forward to new things.

update...

so much has happened in the last few weeks.

the black sox lost their tournament game that day... to a team that sadly cheated... it's true... they had to cheat to beat us. and it wasn't caught until it was too late... and our kids went home with medals instead of trophies and hearts heavy because they wanted so badly to win and they played so hard and were doing so well...

beau bought a house, and today he passed final inspection on the house (obstacles have abounded these last two weeks), and as soon as the utility companies receive the permits, he will be able to live in his beautiful house! we're both really looking forward to the drama being done, of unpacking and putting everything in its place, and finding misplaced things...

i spent my vacation week painting at beau's house. it's not perfect, but the colors are awesome, and happy, and i cant wait to get everything set up the way it's supposed to...

i started my new job. yesterday was my first day in the classroom, and whoa, nelly, i came home very discouraged. what did i sign myself up for??? ohhhhh wow... we have 10 kids that are 2-3 years old... and 3 kids that are 4 and are only there for this week until their school opens up. the kids were out of control yesterday. i didn't know the schedule, and i still am learning that... the kids didn't know me and wouldn't listen to me at all... it was hard... i couldn't get in the groove, and i was just getting more and more tired and bitter and my head was throbbing by the end of the day. not a fun first day. TODAY however, was redemptive. still not my dream job, but i think i can handle this for the next year or so... until the preschool accepts me next school year--if that's where God takes me. i like the main girl i'm working with, and the other staff members are really nice and helpful. the kids are handfuls, and it's difficult with the older ones in there, acting like they can do whatever they want. it's amazing that at even 4 years old, they think they "rule the school" just because they're older and bigger than my little 2.5-3 year olds... anyways... so i just have to get up early, spend quality time with God in the morning, and get my mind and my heart in the right place, and keep it on him throughout the day, and we'll be good to go.

school starts in two weeks for me... nervous, yes, because i don't know how i'm going to fit everything in. but it'll work out somehow... somehow...

i found an amazing website online, thanks to family circle magazine (thanks to andrea for the magazine), chegg.com where you can rent textbooks instead of buying them. you can always have the option of buying the book at the end of the semester if you really liked it, but renting it for the semester is sooooo much cheaper than buying even used copies. i'm thrilled--means less money for school! :) sooo if you're going back to school on a budget (ahemcaitlin) check it out and get your books from them. :)

ok... well there's the update...

hope you liked it. :)

baseball

tonight is our second game in the tournament, so we could win tonight and keep playing or we could end tonight... (by "our," i mean beau's 5&6 year old team). last night was their first game in the tournament. they played the league's best team, the red team, and they played so well, gave the red team a run for their money! made them sweat for a couple innings. our boys, they're good. according to one of the team members, "they're just lazy"--that's why they don't win. ahhh, from the mouths of babes. :)

here's some of my favorite pics of the boys...

Roman at second and Trent at first. Ready position, boys!

Run William, RUN!!!!

Run JO JO, Run!!! (such determination on his face, and his little legs going as fast as they can!)

Sweet snag, Bryce!!!

to be a disciple...

i'm in search of someone who can teach me the ways of messianic jewish women... what are our roles in life? what are our roles with our husbands (future or current) and our children (future or current)? what are our roles within our community of believers? what are our roles in our community at large?

i'm striving to follow after our Rabbi. i'm striving to live my life according to His will. sometimes i'm not always quite certain what that looks like. i'm surrounded by a greek mindset... completely greek. can't get more greek than traditional school. so this isn't going to be easy. but i'm up for the challenge.

what traditions will we hold on to? what laws are applicable?

what do we follow, the Mishnah, Talmud, or simply the Torah?

it's a lifestyle. i get it. i want to find a woman who has walked this life who can show me how to walk in HIS footsteps too...

sigh.

so my man is gone for the weekend... on the mantreat. that's the men's-retreat for those of you who don't know. :) i just said goodbye to him and miss him already. sign of love? i think so. i'm excited to see what stories he comes back with. can't wait to see how God teaches and uses him this weekend.

camp is going well. busy and keeps me on my toes. but it's going well.

daycare ... oh daycare... i met my class today. at least some of them. wow. ms. alicia and i are gonna have our hands full. we may have a small class, but it is an active class... oh man... am i really prepared for this? idk. but i've made the commitment. God's got me there for a reason...

*sigh*

i'm exhausted... emotionally drained... physically drained. i think this will be a good weekend to try to recoup...

sushi

the only place open last night to satiate our craving for sushi was Osaka in Slidell. i ventured over there, nervous because, well, i've not ordered sushi on my own for the two of us before. i get the menu and sit down and freak out. almost everything that sounds good has shrimp tempura in it. and ohhhhh how badly we want shrimp tempura... but we can't... so... i get creative, and an "i'm fairly hungry" amount of sushi later, the ladies at Osaka are giving me the bag of food. The young girl looks at me, and looks at the bag and says "Is this for one?" and i smiled and said, "no, there's two of us." She had a look of amazement on her face when she said, "Wow, that's still a lot of food for two." i chuckled and said, "yeah, we like to eat a lot of sushi..."

the sushi was good. the seafood salad was incredible...

Kids Camp starts on Monday. I'm no longer stressed because we're at the point of no return and KK has really stepped up this week and done well with what she was given. I'm looking forward to new and familiar faces at Camp this year. I'm not looking forward to the potential of having people come to register NOW--on the day camp starts, and having to tell them "I'm sorry, camp is full..." I am looking forward to a new routine and being with kids all day.

I have a job for the fall! I started training last Friday and sat down with the owners at Heart of Learning (a daycare center) and discussed a full time position in August as lead teacher of the older 2s, young 3s, with another girl, Alicia, whom I've never worked with but has always been really nice to me. I'm excited! We move classrooms July 25th-26th, and Alicia and I get to set up our own classroom! My eyes lit up as I realized that I am in fact getting the class I was hoping to get--it's just gonna look different. Instead of 20 4s and 5s, I get to play with no more than 12 2s and 3s. :) Daycare isn't what I had my heart set on, but God is opening the doors here, so I'm going through them and next year, when I'm qualified for a Practitioner's license, I will be able to teach at a public school. For now, though, let's look at this year! This year I get to teach a group of little ones!

What I am looking forward to is the first week of August having a week of vacation. While I don't get paid for the week, it'll still be nice to get ready for this next chapter in my life. It'll be good to get my internal clock reset also--7am-4pm is going to be a rough schedule here for me for the first bit, until my body can sleep earlier, and my brain can function earlier in the morning. Sigh. Sometimes I really hate being a night person.