It's been quite a while...

I haven't written on Xanga in, well, it appearstwo and a half months!  My whole summer vacation.  I apologize to those of you who don't have facebook to keep up with me, but here's an update. :) 

School began today.  What an enormous difference from last year and this year!  Even just knowing the staff has made things 100% better.  Plus now, I get to teach middle schoo (Language Arts)l!!  I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be working with middle school again.  I know they will push my buttons, get under my skin, and drive me crazy, but standing there in front of them, talking with them, interacting with them-- I felt like I belonged.  So already this year is off to a better start than last year.  There's a big difference teaching the age group you're called to teach versus just teaching, period.

But, my summer felt (and was) really short.  I did a lot though: I went to Chicago for a nice long time and got to do everything I'd hoped to do; I spent a week at camp in NC; and crossed most of what I'd hoped off my summer to-do list.

Here are my current prayer requests, if anyone is interested:
1.  I want to be a great English teacher that inspires the students to care, to work hard, and most importanly, to love Jesus more than they did before they took my class.

2.  I am soon going to be the only middle school girls leader at youth group.  We need some more help, and I'm taking on more administrative responsibility, so I just want to do a good job with all of that.

3.  I'm praying about ways to use the talents God has given me in some way, praying that He'll show me some ways to use drawing, fashion design, painting, photography, whatever-- for His glory.  I feel like they're being wasted right now, and I don't want that to continue.

So that's my life right now.  Oh!  And one of my very dearest friends (and sister, practically), Holland, just got engaged!  So that's the second wedding in what I anticipate to be a very wedding-filled year!  The first is my friend Nicole-- Kristin and I are travelling to Chicago in two and a half weeks to go to her wedding (yay... counting down the days!).

That's all, folks.  Hope you're all well and preparing for the upcoming fall/schoolyear! :)  Love!

Empty Chairs and Empty Tables...

Well, not quite, but most of the bulletins are bare, and I find myself thinking back to my Moody days, when everyone would pack up their once homey rooms and suddenly, they echoed.  Poster-plastered walls became stark white (except where your illegal tape had pulled off the paint, leaving a tawny colored expensive blemish), and all personality evaporated.  The hallways would be stuffed with junk though, until one by one everyone cleared out (and left all the dirty work for the RAs to finish).  Yeah, Kristin and I have some bad memories of cleaning up after dirty girls :).  Let's just say at one point I was knee-deep in garbage bags and at another point my head was in the oven for way too long.  Anyway, that's what my empty bulletin boards remind me of.  Packing up to go home for the summer. 

And it's really funny here.  Today, I almost laughed out loud because every time I was in the halls, frantically speed-walking from one task to the next, I'm sure with a crazed look on my face, I saw at least three other teachers looking the exact same way-- eyes glazed over, walking very quickly, determined to check one more thing off their list!  I don't think I've ever come so close to madness in my life! :)

So things are pretty stressfull around here.  But just like in college, I know that the storm will pass and peace will come.  But right now, I feel like my hair is standing on end!!  All I know is that when next week is over, I will heave a huge sigh.  Oh, and I also know that I need a huge laugh that will give me lots of endorphins to make it through this weekend.  :) 

Of Roaches and Warriors...

Cockroaches are no match for Kristin and me.

I was in my bathroom, washing my face before going to bed, when I heard the scream from the kitchen.  I knew that scream.  That kind of scream meant only one thing: cockroaches.  So I ran to the kitchen and made for the Raid, but Kristin had beaten me to it.
"Where did it go?!!"
"Under the microwave!!!"
*spray, spray, sprayyyyyyyy*
We both screamed like crazy people as it appeared from beneath the microwave, trying to fly.  Kristin was relentless with the Raid.  We watched as it hobbled from the wall to the floor, and on the floor of the kitchen into the laundry room.  Kristin never stopped spraying.
"GET THE HAIRSPRAY!!!!"  The last thing we wanted was a flying roach.  I ran to and from my bathroom and sprayed that sucker like there was no tomorrow.  I sprayed so much hairspray that there was a puddle beneath his twitching exoskeleton.  We did it.  We killed the beast.  There was lots of screaming, lots of spraying, but we killed it.  Of course, we had to wash the floor and the counters because not only was there Raid and hairspray everywhere, but we had also literally scared the crap out of it.  Ugh. 

I'm pretty sure that if someone had filmed us last night, we'd be YouTube stars.  It was hilarious.  We are warriors when it comes to killing cockroaches, but seriously, I think I speak for the both of us when I say, "where's a guy when you need one?"

Theater Oddities

So yesterday I had a bizarre experience at the movies.  Never you mind that I had gone four times in the last week (WHAT?!!  There are a lot of movies to see, and so little time!!), but I went to see a movie with Debby last evening and it was so strange.  The group of people behind us felt that it was their job to shout things at the characters of the movie, and answer their questions for everyone to hear.  And the woman to my right had basically packed a large meal, and after eating it, it apparently toppled to the floor because the next thing I knew she was on all fours picking things up for at least five minutes.  Then she left, only to return later with a bag of popcorn.  And one person left and returned, literally stomping up the stairs as if she were Godzilla!  All of that, combined with a pretty weird movie that I expected to be much cuter (Nim's Island), I felt very odd, like I had just experienced some kind of trip or series of hallucinations.  But, all things considered, it wasn't a total waste because Gerard Butler was enjoyable. :) 

Sooo, I bought my plane tickets for Chicago.  June 2-19!  It's time-- I've had several dreams about home, so my subconscious wants it too!  I need that time to decompress, to sleep, to cool off (quite literally, I assure you), and to enjoy quality family time.  There's no place like home, you know what Dorothy and I mean?

Hopefull things to do in Chicago this summer:
see the peonies (my most favorite flower ever, ever, ever)
go to a night White Sox game and eat a Kosher's Best hot dog
go to the Art Institute
go to the Field Museum
walk around the city
see movies with the family
have a Father's Day party at our house (complete with cajun bratwurst, corn on the cob, and taffy apple salad)
take night walks with the parents
sleep with the windows open, smelling the fresh, summer air

Here's a bunny trail.  Quit now if you're not in the mood. 

Ah, I can smell the summer air now, and feel the cool breeze.  I can smell the peonies and freshly cut grass.  I can smell the summer rain and I wish I could be there right now.  I'm going to get even more sentimental:  at this very moment I'm recalling a specific memory-- when I was in high school, my bed was right by my windows.  I remember one night lying there, my head completely level with the window, looking out at the full moon with the fresh air breezing in.  The moonlight was pouring in, and I remember thinking how much I love living there.  Funny that God would call me elsewhere, from somewhere I loved so much.  I'm not unhappy here, but I'm not in love with Florida.  It doesn't have a lot of heart (the people do, of course)... or maybe it's just that my heart isn't totally here?  I don't know.  I do love the people here though.  God has been faithful.  It takes me a while to warm up to people, and to open up, but I've started developing friendships that I really value, and I wish I could take all the people from Florida that mean something to me with me to Chicago to show them why I love it so much.  I know God still wants me here, and to be honest, if I were to move back to Chicago, I would miss the people here terribly.  But something I've come to learn about myself is that I take time.  While I'm usually a very quick, impatient person who gets things done and NOW, when it comes to making friends, opening up emotionally, and letting people see the real me, I take time.  So maybe with more time, I will not only love the people here, but also love the place.  We'll see.  :)

Anyway, that was a crazy long bunny trail.  But it was an insight into my mind at the moment.  It's hard to be away from what you know and love, in a place that you are learning to know and love.

She's ba-aaaack!

I just haven't had a lot to say to Xangaland for a while.  Life has been life, nothing to really complain about, nothing to really jump up and down about. 

Last weekend was Holland's birthday, so I drove over to Palm Bay to celebrate it with her.  It turns out that became one of my worst days every though.  Seriously.  People who know me, know that it is a big deal for me to drive on the interstate, and an even bigger deal to follow directions.  So even though I'd driven there successfully once, and semi-successfully another time, I made the same mistake as last time and then some and ended up lost and late.  Finally I got there and Holland, Kelly, and I got "dolled up" for Orlando (woo-hoo, right?  Well I actually was excited).  The three of us and Alex went to Tempano, a fancy-shmancy restaurant where Alex used to be a chef, and Holland made me try mussels ().  Kristin and Paul joined us for what was supposed to have been a night dancing at Disney's Pleasure Island clubs, but we got there at about 12:30, an hour and a half before it closed.  So we saw a less-than-funny comedy act, then hit the 70s club, which would have been fun, had anyone actually been dancing instead of standing around holding beer (boo).  So we went to another one, which was playing reggae music.  Awkward to dance to.  I hung back for that one, insisting it was "boyfriend music."  And of course, to make the evening complete, in the space of about the ten minutes we were at that club, two very drunk men hit on me (how's this pickup line: "Have you ever smiled for a stranger?").  Ugh.  It probably would have been more fun if we'd gone earlier-- there would have been more people, and the people there wouldn't have been drinking ALL NIGHT.  To top it off, I had an awesome assortment of other crummy things happen, so when it was all said and done, it was not the night I had been so anticipating; rather, it was the night I'd never hoped to have!  Really though-- it wasn't fun, but it IS funny. 

I spent the rest of the weekend in Palm Bay, which for the most part was great-- seeing Holland and her family, laughing a lot, eating Alex's gourmet meal complete with a sorbet to "cleanse our pallettes," beating Alex soundly in Rummy, and winning Scrabble-- but I did have to endure excessive doses of schmoopiness from the two couples... but I like them anyway :).

So that's that latest event in my life, really.  I've been going through some tough times-- it had been really good, but now it's sort of a valley.  I'm just asking the Lord to show me what he wants me to learn, and for me to respond correctly to disappointment and not understanding.  I'm also asking for prayer for direction-- I am thinking about pursuing my M.Ed. next year.  I think I could do it-- the only thing that's really holding me back is the fear of being in debt, which I've never been.  But I'm thinking about that.  It's about a 2-year committment though, and I'm not sure where I'll be in two years.  Probably still here, but who knows?

Meanwhile, I just want summer to come MORE THAN EVER!  I love my job, but I NEED A BREAK!  I need to go to Chicago.  I need to see my family!  I need to sleep in!  I need to paint!  Ok maybe not NEED, but really want.  REALLY. 

Oh-- also, please pray for the family and friends of Mandy Annis, a girl I knew from Moody who was on her bike in Chicago and killed by a man who was speeding.  It was very sudden and unexpected and her family and friends are really grieving.  God's really been teaching me about the brevity of life-- and because of that, how should we live?  Not wasting our time.  Giving top priority to God's work, and loving him and learning about him.  I hope you're encouraged to do the same.

Sorry-- that is all so random.  Just thought it would be time to update :).