What has happened within the last year?

I don't believe I have many people who follow my blog so I guess I never felt bad for not really updating for a year and a half. Well, I'll see if I can keep it up for the next several months. I admit that I love following blogs and hearing the wonderful things everyone is doing.

Well, right now I'm in school (yes, again) to get my Masters in Social Work. As the practicum and the classes take up a majority of my time, I'm unable to work. This is probably the hardest part of the whole going back to school thing. I miss teaching the young ones but I try to substitute once a week if possible. I am loving the MSW program and the other students I'm with in the program. The hardest part of the whole thing is seeing people in need and knowing that I can only help some and not others. At least without going insane trying to help everyone.

My sewing is coming along. I have put it on hold for the last two weeks though because I'm trying to finish up some final papers. I should be doing a paper right now but I thought I need a break from the paper last night to the new paper due tomorrow. Needless to say, I'm ready for the holiday break.

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas season so far! :)

Through Rain or Shine

As of right now, it's really through the rain.  At least two weeks of massive rain (at least that's what it feels like) in Charleston and now rain in Lexington.  I'm hoping it rains itself out by the time winter comes around so that it doesn't snow like crazy.  I have a weird feeling though that it'll probably rain/snow for the whole winter.  I'm going to hibernate if that's the case.  So I'll need someone to make sure to mail me rations every week or so.

I had my first day of teacher training here.  A little overwhelming because the district here so different from home in many respects.  I'm too excited though.  I can't wait for the school to begin.  So far so good.

So, JB has said that I'm able to paint from room any color I feel.  I admit that I do like the color my room is now (a deep salmon pink) even though at night when it's darker, the walls close in a little.  I am thinking about a gray lavender.  I love the color purple but I don't want the pinkish undertones.  I made that mistake when I painted my room at home.  I didn't realize then (about 5 years ago now) that I chose a pinkish lavender.  It is just too pink.  But I think I'm going to do what they say on those home makeover shows.  After priming the walls, I will put on a few different trials of the paint and see which one looks the best in all the different lights.  So far I think the ones I want to try are called Ginger Lily, Sea Lavender, and Fortnight Lily.  Love love love Sea Lavender!  But watch it be the worst out of the three.  Sigh.

The last idea on my mind tonight is the meaning of names.  Ok, so this has been on my mind for a while.  Have you ever wondered if somehow you were named correctly even though your parents were really thinking about the meanings instead of the sounds of the names?  Well, my first name Christine means Christian or anointed.  And my middle name means warrior.  So together I would be an anointed/Christian warrior.  This makes me wonder since almost everyone I know that is named Christine also seems to be "anointed" somehow.  Maybe not in the classical sense of going to church but very spiritual in their own way.  I would like to think that I am an anointed warrior in some way...in teaching and in helping my friends.  I am not be the one at the front of the picket line in either case but I will fight to the end to make sure my friends are always well treated.  I do wish I could have handled the last roommate situation a little better.  I should have defended JB a lot more than I did to the evil-forest-up-her-behind roommate.  I just didn't want to make things worse for JB after I left but in the end it didn't matter.  Lesson learned though.  Maybe in a few years I'll write about how I have fully grown into my name.  Look up your name and see if you fit your name.  Plus, it's so much fun to look at what your name day is.  Yes, yes, I know that I am a geek.  :)

I'm having trouble posting pictures at this time so hopefully I can show you a few new ones I took lately.

My Usual Friday

Right now I am sitting at one of my auntie's houses.  It's the usual Friday round of watching my mom and her friends practice their folk dancing.  I know, I know.  It probably sounds very boring to a lot of people.  It used to be boring to me.  After all, I have watched them for years since I was at least six years old.  Now, call me crazy but I love it.  True, sometimes it does get to be a little much since I am the only one under the age of 50.  Overall, this reminds me every Friday that I have an awesome family and we have good friends.  I don't know how to describe the feeling that I get when I am sitting at the dinner table (sometimes banished to the coffee table because I'm still the youngest) or when I just listen to the conversation flow around me as I understand the gist of what they are saying or even when I watch these amazing women teach themselves dances from videos.  I guess all I can say is that I find that over the years I have found respect, peace, and love through all these practices.  Plus, I am beyond thankful that I do NOT have to be the one to do the dances.  I sometimes think they made the children (i.e. my cousins and I) dance just to torture us.  I can say that I am happier here being with my family than going to the bars feeling like a piece of meat at the market.

I babysat for the cutest and beautiful baby today.  JM, my cousin, let me watch her while she went to work.  I must say that I have fallen in love with her laugh and her growling.  How could you not when she growls at her Noah's Ark animals?  As we took a nap today on the couch, I admit that I am starting to long to start a family (in my mind, if only I have a baby that good).  I know I could definitely wait for a while.  I am still a little selfish and definitely not yet financially stable.  I will overcome one of those two this fall when I start my job (woooohoooo!!!).  A baby takes so much more than I can give by myself.  One day though I know I will have one when the time is right.  Until then though I have a gorgeous baby to cuddle, snuggle, and growl with.  :)  Thanks, JM!!!  :)

Funny thing, talking about my mom's dancing and JM makes me remember back when I was younger.  I think I did talk with JM about this and maybe ZB too.  I remember anticipating the weekend all the time because I knew I would see JM and ZB.  Our parents always had something going on Saturday and if we were lucky we would be able to spend the night at someone else's house.  Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing my school friends.  But the weekends were just something special.  It was like a whole other world where the kids run in and out between adults trying to get food and drinks.  We also played long and hard on the playgrounds making up different games or even playing tennis if we had a chance.  I definitely would not even think about leaving out the bowling alley.  This just goes to show you how different our world was then to what it is today.  Our parents would allow us to go to and from the bowling alley which was a couple of doors down from where they were.  I don't remember ever playing but we had to get fries there.  Loved it!

Now thinking about this makes me a little sad too.  I always wanted my children to grow up with JM and ZB's children.  When we were younger, it never occurred to me that we wouldn't live close together or that we wouldn't have children at the same time.  I am hoping that I will be able to create a similar environment with my children no matter what the circumstances were.  Does anyone have similar childhood memories?  I always wondered if we were just really lucky or if everyone has something similar.

Now on to the last thing.  I have been such a slacker with my sewing lately.  I know I shouldn't be mad at myself.  It's difficult though because there's so many things I want to try but I just don't have the energy.  We'll see though because I'm housesitting for my cousin, Ina, this week starting tonight.  I'm going to bring my sewing and see if I can someone get some inspiration in a new, more spacious place.  Hopefully, I'll have some pics of things I have finished the next time I post.  Until then, have a great weekend.  :)

The Whirlwind Weekend

OMG!!!  Haha!!  I have wanted to use that expression.  There's just something about it that made me feel very teeny bopperish.  Anyway!  What a whirlwind weekend with such an awesome ending that I cannot express it!  I'm sure everything can tell though with all the random exclamation points.  So I ended up getting a call on Tuesday night for an interview in KY for Friday afternoon.  Definitely squeal worthy.  I drove up on Thursday and had an awesome time with JB.  Talk about nervous though.  I couldn't really sleep that night.  The next day I felt all stuffed up yet sniffly.  So I was sort of stupid and took a Benedryl right before my interview.  Yes, I know that it was a kind of silly move.  I just wanted to be presentable and at least then I wouldn't have to worry about that during the interview.  The interview itself was good.  Then double squeal worthy!  I received an offer to teach first grade.  Ok, it's more like quadruple squeal worthy!  I want to say thank you to JB for giving my resume and being the best roommate.  So I am more than excited and ready to start already.  :)  An old picture from Keeneland in KY.  Oh, how I will be there soon.

Tonight I ended up watching Jon & Kate Plus 8.  I have never really watched it.  Well, bits and pieces and if I can't get out of it when I am visiting someone.  Yes, I think all the kids are cute and yes, I also think that it is pretty neat about what they are doing.  I just don't see the fascination with them really.  To each their own though.  It does make me sad though to hear all these things in the media.  My take on it is that every marriage goes through tough times and theirs may be tougher because the media and their show are in their faces.  Yes, I do know that celebrities go through that.  I don't think it's right when the media does it then too.  I guess what I am trying to say is that sometimes people grow and change without realizing it and they just need time to sort through it all.  Who knows what the outcome will be but hopefully they will work it out.

Extremely Excited, Very Nervous

I'm in Kentucky!!!  How exciting is that?  Did I heard someone ask if I was visiting?  The answer is a resounding nope!  I'm actually here for a job interview.  I know!  A job interview.  How long has it been since I used the hopeful phrase of job coinciding with my name in the same sentence.  So tomorrow afternoon I will be interviewing (in a group interview) at a local elementary school here.  Yup, you guessed it.  I'm extremely excited but very, very nervous.  I think it's hard to think I have tons and tons of competition since it will be a group interview.  My friend JB is right though...just be confident, yourself, and calm, and you will be perfect.  :)  Thanks, JB for the great advice.  So I'm going to end this part of the post right here so I don't jinx myself and so I won't get any more nervous.

As to my quilting, it has been put on hold.  I know I hear some "duhs" going around since I'm away from my sewing things.  At home though, I decided to clear away my projects for about a week and not stress about doing them.  None of them need to be ready as of this second.  So I think this will help me feel industrious again when I start after this week.  I did save up my birthday money and got some good precut fabric.  I also got a new quilt pattern called "Simply Sweet" by Me and My Sister.  It is very simply sweet.  My fingers are itching to sew it right now but I know I need the break.  On a sad, sad quilting note, the local quilt shop here The Corner Quilt Store (literally at the end of our street) is closing forever.  They were sweet ladies with awesome ideas.  So I'm going in tomorrow morning to see if I can find some great fabric at 40% off.  Hopefully, everyone there is taken care of and doesn't have to worry about the job market.

On a completely different page, I saw Angels and Demons the movie.  I think though that I will have to post a whole new post to put all my thoughts about that movie.  Definitely keeping my thoughts under wraps until I do.  Don't  say anything, ET!  I would like to have it as a surprise.  If anyone else has seen it (all my million readers...haha!), please tell me what your thoughts were.  :)

"Gratitude is rooted in the sense that life is a gift."  The Lord Is My Shepard p. 146

I think that quote from Rabbi Kushner's book says it all.  Everything in our lives are gifts, from awesome goodness to horrible evils.  Without horrible evil, would we be able to appreciate all life has to give us.  So yes, I think both go hand in hand.  Here are the things that I am grateful for:

1. I am grateful for my family and friends.  Without them, I would be lost, lonely, and angry.  With them, I am strong, capable, and loved.
2. I am grateful for my health.  I am the one that has the capability to change if my health is better or worse.  I am one of the few lucky that although I am overweight I do not suffer a horrible long list of maladies.
3. I am grateful for my intelligence and love of books.  I am very smart...maybe not in the ways of school always but in the way that I know what I need to know and I am willing to learn something new all the time.
4. I am grateful for all the bad things that have happened in my life.  haha!  I can hear gasps of disbelief.  As I have said, without bad things, I would not appreciate my family/friends/my job/loves as much as I do now.
5. I am grateful for the most important thing of all...my life.  :)

I admit that Rabbi Kushner is definitely at the top of my Most Wonderful, Intelligent People list.  :)

The Good, The Bad, and the Delicious

Right now, I am sitting in the parking lot of the NWS medical center waiting for my dad to be done with this appointment.  Then in a couple of hours we are going to another appointment for his nerve block.  Cross your fingers that hopefully this nerve block will be the thing to stop his pain.  I admit I hate going to the hospital and all doctors, but who doesn’t?  I don’t mind seeing the doctor or even taking the medicine…it’s the waiting that is evil.  I understand it all.  I think I have read at least 10 books, colored 15 file folder games, and written many things while waiting for my dad in his endless appointments for the past two weeks.  I don’t mind especially because the weather is beautiful and I get to stay in the car.

The good is that our next door neighbors were wonderful last night and brought us fresh just picked strawberries.  They were gorgeous and sooo sweet.  I think this week or next is the last week of the strawberry season.  My mom asked, “Why didn’t we plant strawberries?”.  I had bugged her for about 3 weeks to plant strawberries and she of course said we don’t have room.  Well, awesome solution!!!  On the side of our house is a walkway with just lantana.  It gets wonderful sun and is easily accessible.  I told my mom that we could use hanging planters and put the strawberries above the lantana.  I think it solves many problems.  The other one too is that the neighborhood children hopefully aren’t tall enough yet to reach the hanging strawberries.  We’ll see though.



Probably shouldn’t have said that things are bad.  Nothing too much has happened here to really say anything has gone badly.  Unless you count finding a spider in my hair yesterday.  As you can see above, my cat has the right idea.  Reading through osmosis.  Anything that is paper related, he will sleep on.  So of course, when I sat down to read at the counter, who should come up and just fall onto my book mysteriously?  At least he kept my page for me while I went and fixed dinner.

Here’s what I have been reading lately (already have read but willing to read again):

1. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.  I read this book a long time ago but I wanted to read it again before I saw the movie.  I don’t know why I do that when I’m such a book purist.  I hate it when movies make a horrible rendition of the book.  Especially when the movie should really be called “So and So loosely based on the book by So and So…at least we have to the character names down.”
2. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan.  This is one of the most awesome series ever!!  It is considered a youth book (ages 9-12) BUT he writes beautifully.  Riordan does such an awesome job detailing the characters and bringing Greek mythology.  I definitely recommend this series for everyone.  This is the last book in the series and I admit that I am in love with the ending.  He does a good job wrapping all loose ends without staying too long in one area and keeps the storyline going.  I think that killed it for me with the last book in the Harry Potter series.  We won’t even go into that.  That would definitely be the ugly part of this post.
3. The Lord Is My Shepherd by Harold S. Kushner.  Yes, I have quoted from his book before this but I wanted to still list it.  I finished it yesterday!  I don’t know why it took me so long to finish it though.  It’s a wonderful, easy read.  Rabbi Kushner has a good writing flow that is so easy to follow.  I guess the only thing I can say is that he has so many good points that I read the whole book slowly.  This is such a powerful book.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone.  I think I'm going to try to pick up his other books also.  Now here’s another good quote from the book that has really touched me.

   “Once we have learned to see our lives as the accumulation of gifts that God has given us, gifts we could not have acquired by our own efforts, once we have learned to appreciate what we have, rather than complain that we don’t have more, because we could have had nothing…”  p.152

4. Hidden Fang, Crouching Vampire by Katie McAlister.  Yes, yes, laugh all you want at the title.  She is probably one of the best authors I have read in a long, long time.  She has the right amount of wit in her stories.  This is a romance novel and so be warned to all of you who don’t like that genre.  I would say though that you should start with the first book of this particular series.  I think she writes a youth series and I’m trying to find those books.
5. The Second Siege: Book Two of The Tapestry by Henry H. Neff.  Yet again, an awesome youth series!!!  This is the second in the series with the third maybe coming out in September of this year.  I like this book because it has magic but it doesn't rely on magical things such as potions and wands (which are good too...after all, I do loved Harry Potter until the last book came out).  This is one that I would definitely recommend for anyone.  Powerful and well written.

I’m sorry that this post is the size of my cat (big, flat and pear shaped).  I hope that everyone is having a good middle of the week and enjoying the beautiful weather (at least here).

Rainy Weekend

What is my fascination with Bridezillas?  Well, I know for a part of it is the fact that I can't believe how evil they are.  It always makes me wonder why their fiances stay with them after seeing this side of them.  Anyway, I watched a mini marathon of them last night and it was pretty interesting.

On Saturday, I helped my younger cousin Ina with her school project.  Oh, the joys of procrastination when it comes to school work.  I would love to meet someone who did not ever procrastinate on any project.  I'm sure there's at least one out there...I am definitely not one of them.  Ina and I spent about 6 hours on this project and she wasn't done by the time I left at 10:30 that night.  She's lucky though that I have read the book and could help her with a lot of the different in depth things.  After helping her, I did feel a little sad about not teaching this year.  I love helping those little ones no matter how frustrating it is at times.  I know something will come up but I have to keep my chin up.  

These flower pictures are from my mom's garden.  Can you imagine what my mom's whole garden looks like?  She has such a green body.  Hopefully, I'll be able to show you soon the tomatoes, eggplants, beans, and peppers we are growing.  :)

Lately, I think I have been in a sewing slump.  I have been sewing, thinking up projects, and looking at gorgeous fabric.  I just can't bring myself to sew though.  I look at my machine sitting across my room and I just can't pick up my feet and clear away the area.  I think I said part of my problem there.  It's too crowded in my sewing area.  I have to move fabric from around the whole area.  I don't have a cutting area and so I use the floor.  That's just irritating.  I think I'm going to have to find a better sewing option before I got crazy.  That's my project for the week.  I have decided to put off sewing anything all week and clean up and organize my area.  Sigh, I have a feeling I'll be dropping off a lot of stuff off at thrift store come the end of the week.

A good surprise was that my brother let me borrow his dog, Casey, for a day and a night.  Don't get me wrong, I love my cat.  But how can you not like to have a dog for a day that follows you everywhere and loves you.  If you have never met a mini schnauzer, I think you might be missing out on something great.  These dogs are a great compact sweet guard like dogs.  Please excuse her appearance in the picture.  I took her to get groomed later that day but wasn't able to get another picture of her before I gave her back to my brother.