Movin' On Up

Just a short update tonight on things because I am exhausted and ready for bed.

I interviewed a few weeks ago with Children's Home Society of Florida (who I have been trying to get an interview with for 2.5 years) and got the call on Friday offering me the job. So of course I jumped on the option and I will now be starting my new job in training on April 12th. As much as I hate leaving my class of kids in the middle of the school year, I could not possibly pass up this chance to get into the field that I have strived to be in. I cannot wait to start this job, although I am extremely nervous because I will be dramatically effecting people's lives from here on out.

My official title is Early Head Start Home Visitor. The job requires me to go to clients houses to do early head start and check up on how the children are doing. A lot of the work includes working with parents on how to parent and making sure that the children are doing well. If things are not going well I may be the one who pulls the plug and DCF will come in and remove the child from the home. I will more than likely have to testify in court who knows how many times. It will be a challenging job, that is for sure. Hopefully I am cut out for this work. I have wanted to get into the social work field since graduating. I only hope that I do not fail miserably in this line of work. I feel a bit overwhelmed because I have no idea what I am going to be doing and I have never done this type of work before. I know everyone has to start somewhere, but it is definately a scary situation.

Anyways, this position is going to open up new doors in our lives. The increased salary will not only make the money issue and paying bills more feasible, but it makes sure that we can afford our football tickets next season. It also opens up the door for us to get a dog, which I want badly. And the biggest door it opens is that we can possibly begin trying to start a family sometime in the next year or two because money won't be such an issue anymore. Things are definately looking up and I thank God for the opportunities he has given us and I hope I do Him proud.

Jan. #2

So here goes...

1. the rats went away, then decided to come back before we could get the holes patched...therefore, we still have rats in the attic :(

2. I am praising the Lord because Amber has been given a clean bill of health! Her whole situation with the molar pregnancy and the possible cancer was a scary situation. I don't know what I would have done if they had told her any different. Cancer might be the scariest word in the human language. I've seen what it does to people, and I've had close friends die from it. I couldn't imagine living in a world without my best friend and can't imagine her leaving Sophie without a mother. It would be absolutely devastating.

3. My cousin, Anna Grace, a heart baby is on the road to recovery. She had open heart surgery at the age of 1 week old and she is proving to be a champ! She is 4 weeks old now and as soon as her eating improves, Tina will get to take her home. I know it will be a welcome day for the family to have sweet little Grace home. God has certainly blessed Anna Grace and her family.

4. Allergies Suck! That is all I have to say on that matter.

5. I keep thinking tomorrow is Friday, and indeed it will only be Thursday...what a crappy feeling.

January 2010

A new year, a lot of new things going on, no new job yet though. :s

The house seems to be providing us with an endless amount of work and expense. I suppose that comes with owning your own home.We have yet to replace the backflow device on the irrigation system, and if it is not fixed by the end of the month we will have our water cut off by the city. We have what I believe are rats in our attic scurrying around and making a delightful mess. I'm trying to get rid of them naturally with peppermint oil, because there is no way I want to deal with smelly dead rats and traps.

We have finally finished all of the painting and fixing up in the kitchen and spare bathroom. Our bathroom we have not yet tackled as we are waiting for the tax money to roll in. There is no telling what we are going to do to our bathroom but I do know it will be expensive to say the least. I absolutely love having our own house though. It may be one of the best feelings in the world to have a place to call your own that no one else can lay claim to. I find it hard to work on the house this week however, because I have been sick for almost 2 weeks now and antibiotics are not helping to make it better. I will keep trying to get over this, that is all I can do I suppose.

In other news, my cousin Tina had her baby, Anna Grace, right after Christmas. Anna Grace has a heart problem and has already undergone extensive open heart surgery and came through it like a champ. She has even been able to move out of PICU and is off of all ventilators and most tubes. However, she is struggling now to take in food. She cannot drink breastmilk because of the fats, and she is not taking well to formula either. Please pray for Anna Grace and her family. She is such a strong little girl to come through all of this the way she has, but she continues to need our prayers and help.

On another note, we will be in Pierson celebrating Pat and Jimmie's (Adam's grandparents) 50th wedding anniversary this weekend. They will be renewing their vows and having a reception afterwards. It is a blessing to see a couple being able to stay married and be happy for that many years, especially in today's society with all of the divorces. I pray that Adam and I are able to spend more than 50 years together happily.

In ending, I completely encourage all persons to purchase a "Snuggie" because it is the best blanket on earth. Yes, I agree that it is incredibly stupid looking to wear, but the warmth and comfort level that it provides is terrific!

2009 Coming to an End

I find it hard to believe that it is already December and 2009 is quickly coming to an end. We have almost already been married 6 months! The past 5 months have flown by with the wedding and the new house. We are finally settled in to a certain extent, but there is still wallpaper to come down and painting to do. We've finally got the pool up and running so that is exciting.

I applied for graduate school today, and by the grace of God I will get in. I guess all we can do is wait and see what happens. If all goes well I will be starting next Fall and be graduated by the Winter of 2012.

Life as of Recently

I know it has been a ridiculously long time since I have been on here.

Life as of recently has been interesting to say the least.

Adam and I have been married almost 2 months now and married life is going well. I can't believe it has already been 2 months since i've seen my friends or family. I was so blessed to have so many people I love come all the way to Florida to share in our special day. It definately would not have been as much fun without Amber, Kayleigh, Rita, and Linnea there. I only wish my ignorant photographer would get me my freakin' picture cds! That is the one thing I am rather p-o'd about lately. There's no reason for this to be happening. Not to mention she won't return phone calls or emails on a consistent basis. I definately will not be giving her a rave review even if the pictures were great. If you haven't seen the proofs here's the link:

http://clearlyinfocus.nextproof.com/galleries.july-18
password: July182009

Enjoy!

In other news, we are attempting to buy a house. We found a place here in the same neighborhood that is on short sale that has been completely remodeled. The house is amazing to say the least, although the layout of the rooms is something we will have to get used to. The whole buying a house business is entirely too complicated. Our mortgage paperwork for the loan application is like 50 pages long! They make all of this stuff way too long and drawn out. Hopefully we can get this figured out soon and possibly move in the next few months. It would make things a whole lot less stressful around here. Owning our place is just one step closer to starting a family. The next step is for me to find a better job, which I have only been trying to do since I got the job I have.

Lets just hope that I don't get fired from the job I have, regardless of how miserable I am there now. I still need a paycheck until I find something new.

More info to come later on the whole house and moving situation...

Never Enough

Never enough seems to be the theme lately....

Never enough time in a day...or sleep at night...or patience to go around...or money to pay bills...

I find myself always concerned about things, yet I know that I am far better off than a lot of other people right now. It feels almost greedy in a way to know that I think those things. But isn't that human nature? The only things that keep me sane are good friends, a wonderful fiance, my parents, and the cutest 3 year old on the face of the planet. Yes, there actually is one child that I will honestly and truly miss in August when our class moves up to Pre-K. Much to my surprise I've been forming a strong bond with Connor since the start of the new year. He was the only one that really missed me while I was gone last week too. I don't believe I've ever met a smarter 3 year old. He is already pretty much reading and knows things most 2nd graders do not. Not to mention he is the most loving little thing ever. It makes me feel good inside to know that I am contributing to his life in some way. I wish that there were some way to find out who he will be in 20 years. That's the sad part though, once they pass on to another class we will lose touch and that connection will be forgotten. It's sad how these things happen. And nothing is immune to it.

What a Month Coming Up

So let's just say I've got a ton on my plate and my mind this month and its only 2 days into it. Work is starting to drive me crazy! I had a job interview recently and I am supposed to call HR on Wednesday to find out what the next step is, or if there even is one. I am praying with all of my might there is a next step because I REALLY want this job. It is only a silly input clerk position at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center, but after a year I could transfer to domestics or juvenile which is where I want to be. I really hope I made a good impression because I so want to be working in my own field before the wedding. We can't survive off of this type of income for very long if we are getting married. In other news Adam's mom, my soon to be mother-in-law, is having one of her kidneys removed on Thursday. She has a cyst on it and it has doubled in size in a short period of time. Needless to say it is a scary situation and a scary surgery. She will be laid up for awhile which will not make her a pleasant person. We can only hope it hasn't spread anywhere because the doctors think it may be cancerous. That would really put a damper on her life and the wedding plans. There is so much going on that I think my head might explode soon. I can't wait to go home at the end of March to see everyone I haven't seen in almost a year and a half. It has been too long, yet I really haven't missed Houston, that is not to say that I haven't missed the people. Sometimes I wish we had more friends around here to go do things with even though we can make up a lot of fun on our own most of the time.

We spent most of the entire weekend either at the mall or playing lego batman on our wii. Let me tell you that game is downright addictive and by far much better than lego starwars ever was and I loved Lego starwars. I wish the wii would hurry up and come out with another big hit game like super mario galaxy. Sadly I beat that game in less than a week even though it was amazingly awesome fun.

On an ending note I had great fun with one of my kids from school last week when he decided to chase his shadow on the playground. It reminded me so much of peter pan. He chased his shadow til it disappeared and then decided it was chasing him while he was running away. At one point he stood staring and his shadow and yelled and waved to it screaming, "Hi Connor!", which is his name. It definately made my day because cute moments like that are hard to come by sometimes.