Monday Morning

So I was awoken by my mom on the phone....haha....it seems people like calling me before I want to get up! I had a good conversation but I have a headache I can't shake. Oh well, such is life...haha...I really am blessed in so many ways.

I was just sitting on the couch downstairs checking email and thinking about starting to work on my resume when I heard Gpa Jones crying at the table so I went up to see what was wrong and he was just crying because of how different Christmas will be this year without Ruth (his wife who died in October). He talked about when she died and how he felt and how it was just difficult this time of year and how after being together for 63 years he misses her a whole lot. He said that for a while after she had died he still went in to look at her bed every morning just wishing she was there but now has become more comfortable with it and knows she isn't and that she's in a better place. He told me that the night she died she was struggling so much to just take a breath and that he finally prayed God would take her and restore her even though he knew it would be rough for him here.

It was a touching moment where he shared some memories. I guess it just reminds me to live now. To enjoy now. Life goes so quickly and it will slip right by if I am not intensional about living and loving others and following Christ to even make it worth a life to live.....if that makes any sense. I hope your Monday is going well.

I am really thankful for so many friends and family in my life. I hope you all know that.

Love.

Graduated

So, I have an MA in Intercultural Studies and TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language). I am not sure what this means yet for my future. I haven't had a lot of time to really think about it. I feel like life's been a bit of a whirlwind lately. I am really looking forward to break but then I need to figure out job stuff....etc....learning to trust God through all this. I am excited to see what He's gonna do in this new year.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack:)

Hi everyone who probably aren't reading this blog anymore because it seems I fell off the planet...well, I decided today was the day to come back. I'm a week from graduating with my MA degree and I am overwhelmed with the blessings God has bestowed on me. For example, just today I was meeting with my supervising prof for student teaching and my cooperating teacher to discuss my student teaching experience. It was an encouraging time as student teaching was a very positive experience for me. I LOVED it. Flat out...but anyway, at the end of the meeting my cooperating teacher turned to me and handed me two letters of reference for me and said she'd love to be one of the references in my resume. What a blessing! I didn't even have to ask and I think it shocked my prof a little even:) Then I had a little time before I had to go to work and I was right next to an Old Navy, and thinking, hmmmmm, I need some jeans since I ruined my last pair and I don't have any that fit me very well I mise will go check out the selection, so I did. First I was distracted by all the new and bright colors of the season :) I like bright colors but I soon focused on the goal at hand....and walked up to the giant wall of jeans and probably looked confused because I was with the different labels like "Flirt" "Diva" "Classic" etc.....what in the world did it all mean....well, fortunately a sales lady was standing by and proceeded to walk me through it all and I grabbed different styles, lengths, and sizes. After trying them on I decided on an Diva 8 short (never wore that size before and am not exactly sure what it means anyway)....continuing on I took my jeans to the front to pay for them. I was resigned to the fact that I was going to pay a little over $20 for them but they fit well and that's important (according to my friends) so jeans didn't have any tags on them but I didn't want to go back and find another pair so she said, it's ok, I can ring it up. Soon she had this puzzled look on her face and told me they were on major discount, and I was like, yeah, they are 19.99 down from 30 or something, and she was like, where did you get these from and I said, the wall of jeans over there...she said the jeans must have been put away wrong because they were ringing up a different price. I then asked for the price again...and she said $3.74. I had her repeat it again and she said, wow what a deal and I was like, wow, what a blessing with my jaw probably on the counter in front of me:) What a blessing.

Another blessing is that my WHOLE family plus a few extras might be in Wheaton for my graduation next Friday. I am VERY excited about that, possibly even more than the graduation itself:) I love my family and friends.

I am blessed.

refer to title on previous post:)

So, we'll start with, it's been a great week. My brother got married. It was a beautiful day. We all missed my sister, Kelsey, being there but I took over the job of pictures and didn't quite get the 500+ she would have taken but I got a few:) The ceremony was beautiful and meaningful...It was also good to see all the grandparents. Afterwards the reception was at the cabin and it was a good time of bonding for both families. That night mom, dad, and I drove back home bc dad needed to work on Monday.

I planned to head back to Chicagoland on Tuesday and asked mom to come with me. Af first she wasn't going to come, but ended up being able to be "spontaneous" and join me:) on what would turn into quite the adventure to get back to Chicago area. HAHA. We left around 2pm MI time and were hoping to get to St. Charles between 8 and 9pm IL time. Well, my first mistake was thinking I knew part of the way WITHOUT VICKI (my GPS). Yeah, so mom and I were just talking along as we drive through Bad Axe, Imlay City, Flint, Owosso, etc....the last city I noticed was Lansing. Mom was sleeping for a bit but had woken up again by this time as called dad to let him know how we were doing.....as she was talking I started noticing signs for Port Huron and eventually Farmington Hills.....(not good)...mom quickly ended her conversation when she realized what I was saying and we realized that probably someplace in Lansing I had accidently gotten onto 96 headed towards Detroit (the opposite direction we wanted to be heading). At this point VICKI was brought out in haste.

Mom tried to keep control and just verbally tell me the directions but quickly realized with my prompting that I wasn't that good at audio instructions and I did much better if I was seeing VICKI so quickly turned her over to me. At this point it was time to find a place to stop for restrooms, eating, and gas but we just wanted to get back on the right track. We quickly redirectioned ourselves and headed towards Ann Arbor (bringing back memories of driving Kelsey to and from school). Once we finally got back on the right track I pulled off at an exit I thought looked good for getting quick food and gas....haha....so did EVERYONE else it seemed and it was too late to turn around. Finally we made our way to a restaurant and gas station and were on the road again, this time using VICKI even though we "knew" where we were. We had lost two hours of our time. Finally after seeming to drive forever in MI we reached Indiana and Illinois. By this time it was starting to get dark and raining a little.

I was telling mom how happy I was to have an ipass and that it made the toll roads a lot easier and quicker to use. Just as we were driving down the first major toll road in IL VICKI started telling us to get off at "random" exits. I then started to fight with VICKI and mom (being level headed as she is just kept driving)....VICKI would say to turn off and I would say "Don't listen to her....she's wrong....I don't recognize this at all!" and mom would be like, well, ok I'll keep driving but I think we need to get off sometime....during this time I am turning her off and on and re programming her for the route to Tobey's house but she keeps insisting we get off the main road. After this continued for sometime we finally decided to listen to her because I didn't know how to get us home even using the main roads. The rain is coming harder now and it's dark out.

When I was at home I thought it would be a good idea to put some rain-x on my windshield so the rain bubbles up and doesn't smear all over the windshield. Little did I know the directions on the bottle weren't very good. I just smeared it all over the windshield and let it dry. I asked dad about it later when I was at home and he said I needed to make sure I really rubbed it off or it would give me trouble but I didn't even think it would be a big deal and I forgot about it....that is until it rained on our trip back and started to do the opposite of the intended effect. It started to smear the rain drops INTO the windshield making it even harder to see esp. with the lights reflecting at night......so mom started at every stoplight to turn on the wipers like a maniac and then stop them while we were driving bc we could actually see "better" without using them. At this point I decided to call dad and ask if he could google how to rid yourself of unwanted rain-x but ended up telling the story of taking a wrong turn and mom and I were laughing so hard it couldn't have been safe:) He must have thought we were going crazy....and we weren't sure we were ever going to reach Tobey's that night because we were heading through all these small towns with bunches of stoplights we kept seeming to hit. We took roads I have never heard of and drove through cities that were probably very nice but not when you're just wanting to get to your destination the quickest way possible. During this time I am still fiddling with VICKI and mom tells me to check and see if I accidently pressed the "avoid all toll roads" option...sure enough I had and we had more of an adventure then we wanted!

In Aurora (a city about 20-30 minutes from Tobeys) I was almost giving up hope and started calling out names of motels along the road such as the City Council Hotel the Happy Motel, the Country Motel, etc....but we ended up forging through and made it to the Tobey's by about 11:15pm. All's well that ends well I say.......just chalk it up to another adventure in the car....be careful when riding with me!

This week has been great having mom here, too. We've walked a river path at a park near here (beautiful)....I don't know how many miles we walked and then the next day biked around 15 miles on trails around the Tobeys.....visited with the Harpers (old family friends), and enjoyed time together. It's been so nice to have someone to do some active things with....although I think my body might be protesting a little now:) I love it.

Blessings. Sorry so long!

rain-x on opposite day....

Oh fudge!

If you know anything about me, you know that I shruggle (struggle) with things like eating. My sister once crocheted me a bib, but I don't like to wear it in public.

The other day, I was driving through the McD's drive thru and felt the urge to get me some ice cream. A normal person driving in the dark would choose something safe, like a milkshake... with a lid. But I like to live on the edge. So I ordered a hot fudge sundae.

I decided to take a little lick before hitting the road again, so I stuck out my tongue in the general direction of the ice cream, and amazingly enough managed to connect. Did you know the tongue is one of the strongest muscles in the body?

Rachelle (the smart one, you know, with the milkshake) soon pointed out to me that my ice cream was now all down the front of my shirt. Of course I didn't believe her. Who me? Make a mess? I don't think so.

Wrong I was. And sticky.

Now I'm back to wearing the bib.

God Shines...

So today was a good day. I had my morning class cancelled so I had stayed at my friend's house the night before to hang out and watch a movie and talk. We then got up and continued talking until I had 10 minutes, to my dismay, to get ready. I was like a whirlwind - showering and packing up to go to Ladies' Refugee Tea about 45 minutes away. Despite my worry, I made it early and began to set up. We ended up having about 15 refugee ladies come from Iraq, Burma, Togo, Eritrea (sp), and Burundi. We had about 5 American women volunteers to help out. I then proceeded in leading a discussion on "welcoming rituals" in various countries. How do people welcome people in their varying countries, etc... I grouped the women into three groups according to the regions they were from and they began to answer various questions about their culture as well as what they thought about American culture. They were laughing and loved sharing "new information" to the American volunteers helping out. After working for a while in country groups we all came together and took turns sharing answers to questions about their different countries. The women were silent when others were speaking and seemed to learn so much from each other. There were so many "a-ha" moments and I, as the facilitator, felt for once I was in the right place at the right time and I am indeed in the correct major in grad school. It was like a little bit of "heaven" where all the cultures were speaking together and learning from each other and supporting each other. Many of the American volunteers also had their eyes opened and were so surprised at all they had learned. IT all just made me smile. It was a very good day. Now I am exhausted...but very satisfied and thankful.