Tis' the Season!

It's a beautiful blustery day outside and inside I've set up shop at my parents bar to write this quick post and attempt to work on the never ending research paper. This holiday weekend has been eventful for lack of a better word. Wednesday night Lydia and I had both finished Twilight and decided to go watch the movie. I started out fine as the film rolled on and as the plot thickened I began to feel a little woozy. I tried to put my nausea in the back of my mind but it never went away. Finally, about 30 min from the end, I jumped up, ran down the dark stairs and made it to the trash can in the hallway before I lost my dinner. I was convinced to see the end of the movie and I really did feel better so I went back to my seat and finished out the show. The feeling better didn't last though and I was sick every hour until about 4:00 am Thursday. As my family bustled around the kitchen I stayed in bed willing myself to keep down sips of 7UP. I joined the crowd at the table for the blessing and gave myself 1 scoop of potatoes that I never touched and quickly bid everyone farewell and settled in for a long nap. I was able to eat an apple and grilled cheese sandwich later that night and was back to myself by Friday morning just in time to partake in the Black Friday festivities.
Lydia chickened out so Mom and I ventured out into the rain down the interstate at about 5:15 and made it to Bass Pro right after they opened at 6:00. We were in search of Christmas gifts for a long list of family members and a new GPS for Mom and Dad. We meandered through the crowd and left there with much success just as the sun was coming up. The day after Thanksgiving provides a great sale on Yankee Candles so Mom was egar to visit Ellis Pottery and select her favorite holiday scents. With candles in tow we stopped by the mall to investigate a few of the items that Lydia had indicated on her Christmas list and then made stops at JC Penny, Kirklands, Target, Sams and Wal Mart, before making it home and unloaded at about 1:00 and crashed for a long afternoon nap. As we rushed around Shreveport I couldn't help but think, how materialistic does this make me look? Do these people around me see a greedy $3 towel, $10 sweater snatching worldly girl who lives for nothing more than a good deal and the newest and best? As Mom and I visited and laughed while we looked for the treasures that would bring a smile the faces of our most beloved family members, I was reminded of how much I love the spirit of giving that the holidays bring and it quickly added to the happiness and fun of the day. The Lord definitely blesses me through the selecting and giving to my loved ones. What a great blessing!
That night Collin, Melissa and baby Tessa visited from Abilene. Tessa opened her first Christmas gifts and we visited for hours and caught up on time together. I woke up Saturday to find out that Lydia had come down with the stomach issues that I had just been relieved of, but she seemed much worse. I spent the day running errands and going to a birthday party with my aunt only to come home late in the afternoon to Mom very anxiously caring for Lydia, who had developed severe stomach pain and hadn't held down anything in over 12 hours, discussing going to the hospital as it was obvious she was becoming dehydrated quickly. We loaded up and I drove the ill one and the worried mother into town. We got into a room surprisingly quick and they began iv fluids and after a selection of tests and a few nausea meds, she was diagnosed with ovarian cysts, which we've both had before, and of course the stomach virus, we departed for home at about 1:00 am.
Today we're keeping it low key. We skipped all church activities and slept in. Lydia is much better but still resting on the couch. We're fixing to begin the Christmas decor project and Dad and I just took down the large collection of tubs and boxes of family Christmas treasures. The garage currently looks like a small family has packed their belongings and the moving truck will arrive soon. The kitchen is also in full swing as we prepare one last holiday weekend meal for the Abilene visitors and others to enjoy tonight. Following those festivities I will load up the Lexus, just as I did a little over a week ago, and depart for Marshall in anticipation of finishing this semester. The research paper is still lingering, cleaning and packing must be done, hopefully I'll hear from the girl about the potential rental property, the work schedule will continue and I have signed up for one night volunteering at Santa's Workshop helping Marcy out. What an exciting time of year!

Bring on the Break

It's funny how I can escape out to my parents house and not open my computer once and never think once about it but when I'm in town I become extremely irritated over our poor internet service as if I can't live without it. That's been pretty much the scene for this Thanksgiving break so far. I've checked my email once but had to catch up on the blogs this morning as I lounged around at the Trueloves waiting for all three messy haired stinky breath children to make their way up to the den for snuggles and breakfast. I should have known that the break wouldn't be all sitting at the house in Elysian Fields and that I would have to work a little bit. The break so far has been glorious! Friday I made the 20 minute journey out to my parents house with a huge load of dirty clothes and the paperback copy of Twilight (I know I'm a little behind.) I enjoyed the quiet of being home alone and got a little nap before my family came in. After dinner we sat around the fire fit behind my dad's shop and visited until Mom and I got a little too chilly and opted to relax in the living room instead. Saturday morning I woke I hear that Doug had shot a deer and was fixing to be at the shop to clean it. I put on my boots and took coffee down to the busy deer processors and sat on the stool and visited while they worked. When Doug was off to the meat market to deliver his venison to be made into yummy smoked sausage, Mom, Dad and I were off to Lowes to get the supplies needed to finish off the bathroom remodel project that began a couple of weeks ago when Dad's two year temporary fix to a plumbing issue finally gave out. We picked out a new mirror, towel racks, etc. and it should all be installed and complete by tomorrow. Sunday was a great church day followed by an afternoon of napping and continued reading on Twilight. Monday I slept in and read the morning away before deciding I couldn't take another day in the house when this season of holidays allows for so much shopping. I showered and got dressed and was out the door to Shreveport. As I've explained to Mom, I think I would almost rather have an afternoon of shopping alone than a massage. It's pure relaxation. I meandered around World Market, did some hardcore purchasing in Target and got a few much needed things at the Hallmark Store. Overall it was very successful and I returned relaxed and care free. Today I'm in my pajamas still as I was up before dawn to drive to Jefferson. I planned on going back to sleep before the kids got up but it didn't happen. The girls are watching cartoons and when I finish this I'm going to go down the hall and listen at Walt's door for chatter indicating that he might be awake. We've got a pretty low key day planned and will probably only play outside and finish decorating the Christmas tree. I'll stop by the grocery store for Mom before going back home tonight to finish my book and do some more relaxing. I pray that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A Day So Full

Although my days are typically jam packed, it's been a while since I've had one quite this crazy busy. My alarm went off this morning around 6:40 and since I showered last night I hit the snooze a few times before I hit the off button with the intention of getting right up. About 20 minutes later I woke from a dead sleep in which I was dreaming I was picking out an outfit, and panicked. I rushed around and got out the door in a fairly reasonable time and made it to Sam Houston right as the bell rang. Rushing down the hall to my classroom took me back a little to the days of running down the hall in jr. high in order not to get a tardy. I fought the urge all day to leave early and powered through until 2:30. I grabbed a diet cherry coke from sonic (I'm working on it Christina I promise. I'm going home for Thanksgiving and Mom doesn't buy them so maybe that will do it) and then stopped by the preschool to retrieve my very generous Friends of Trinity Christmas bonus gift and took that puppy right to the bank. When I got home I decided the fore go the nap I so desperately longed for and worked on some homework while visiting with Randi and Chelsea who lounged carelessly in the living room. As usual time got away from me and before I knew it it was time to run off to Jefferson to keep my Truelove darlings. I rushed around (looking back on it, I'm not sure why we were in such a hurry...) and eventually got everybody something they wanted to eat between Walt's pitiful cries for Jennifer. I finally gave in and went on a mad search for a Thomas the train DVD in an attempt to hush him. Thank you Thomas for the quietness you afforded me tonight. After a fun giggly bubble laden bath of kiddos and some cookies from grandma we all gathered in the girls room for some play time. The kids played and I collapsed on the bed. I never went to sleep but pretended to in order to see Walt's reaction. When he noticed that I was "asleep" he stood in the middle of the room pointing at me and looking at the girls saying in a very concerned tone "MeMe night night, MeMe night night!"(MeMe is my new Walt given name by the way) It was priceless. Jenn and Kurt came home shortly and after a few slobbery snotty night night kisses, MeMe was on the road headed home to the list of assignments and chores that awaited before the beginning of the break of Thanksgiving. I have planned all week on possibly pulling an all nighter tonight. I'm pretty much finished with the results of my first of two themes for my action research paper and once I knock out the second and do a little cleaning up for room check and packing for my week in Elysian Fields, I'll be off to bed.
I'll always have busy days but the reality that this college kind of busy is drawing to an end is hitting me hard this week. It seems that everybody is starting to think about our time in school and it seems that we're definitely sharing memories and thoughts this week. I'll have a few take home finals to do when we get back before the end of the semester but for the most part this is pretty much my last hoo rah of homework, friends, and coffee filled nights. We'll still be college students next semester but without the demanding course loads and day to day classes. The change is bitter sweet. Ok maybe more like semi-dark chocolate sweet.

The Poet Who Didn't Know It

So some of you have had the pleasure of hearing me discuss the sleeplessness that is plagued my bed this week. I don't know if it's the cold/allergies I've had, the stress that is building up as I fight to finish everything that needs to be turned in before Thanksgiving while trying not to ditch my friends, or if it's just the Diet Coke I've been consuming more so than usual. Whatever it is has got to go. I never have trouble sleeping and more times than not actually have trouble staying awake so this is totally new to me. In this wee hours of this morning as I lay here bright eyed in the darkness of my room I decided to try to tackle the poetry assignment that has to be turned in Friday morning. I am definitely not a poet so with the use of a few handy teacher websites and sites for kids poetry had me rolling. I'll have to say that when I did finally start getting sleepy I fought putting my computer up and thought ok just one more. Here's a few of them. Keep in mind that I pretty much just took the works of children, some more talented writers than I, and adapted them to fit me. It was pretty fun but I think that blogging is a better expression of my feelings for now so don't get used to this. By the way, I slept amazingly well from about 5:00 am until about 10:00. Maybe poetry is the key to insomnia. Ok here ya go:

Pink

Pink is feeling girly

Pink is strawberry limeade

Pink is a song that makes you dance in your room all alone

Pink is a new scarf on sale for $1

Pink is the perfect hair day

Pink is an outfit so great you don’t want to take it off

Pink is a new baby

Pink is laughing with friends over lunch

Pink is feeling accomplished

Pink is wearing a pair of heels all day long

Pink is a text message that makes you smile

Pink is a preschooler’s giggle

Pink is being me

I Can’t Sleep

It’s 5:00 AM and I can’t sleep

I see no point in counting sheep

For what’s the point in laying there

When thoughts in poetry I could share

There was a teacher from Texas

Who dreamed of a brand new Lexus

She opened her check

And said what the heck

Then went and ate tex-mexas

Office Duty

Here on this beautiful fall day, I find myself no place else but closely monitoring the office at the preschool. This isn't a big deal really. I greet parents who come in and make sure no creepers are roaming around. Knock on wood it's been quiet with no real need for me to even leave the desk except to fill my tea glass. What a lovely way to end the week as I say good bye to my sweeties as they bound off into the evening sun shine for their weekend adventures.
I have no real adventures of my own planned. Tonight Lydia and I are going out to dinner and tomorrow I will probably spend the day in the library piecing together various pieces of my research project. That is assuming I find the little notebook that contains ALL of my observations on which the paper is based. Oops. If the original observations are not located I will turn myself to bs mode and simply make some up. I have a pretty good memory and I can recreate them right? I would like to believe as much. Tomorrow night I plan to babysit the Roth offspring. God has provided an abundance of babysitting jobs this week and with sincere gratitude I put a little bit of money into my savings account this morning. I didn't know the account number nor could I locate an old receipt to get it off of. That tells you a little bit about how often I deposit.
The house search continues for Chelsea and I. I had a lead yesterday that Traci and I went and checked out because Chelsea was on the road to Houston. It was an older home that has been remodeled into what I think was 4 units. The current owners are doing yet more remodeling and although it's hard to picture the finished project I think it's going to turn into a really cute place. The downfalls include the lack of central heat and cool and the sharing of a back yard, car port, driveway and street parking space with 3 other individuals, families, or dirty old men. Not to mention that Dad wasn't impressed with the location. When he's forking over the dough, gotta play by his rules. Later in Wal Mart I ran into the lady who owns the house I mentioned in a previous post that served as a location concern as well. She told me more about it and it definitely deserves a tour. I've driven by several times and am beginning to feel more comfortable with the street and definitely want to check out the house when it's ready to show. Overall though I have faith that something will come along.
Parents are arriving by the herd and shipping the little ones out of here. It is a glorious sight I promise.

Girlfriends and Mexican Food

There is big news tonight for those of you following my progress in watching the entire series of Sex and the City. I completed it just a few minutes ago curled up in my bed just the way it all began. As the last episode ended I began to think of a very similar scene right here in Marshall. Kristen, Traci, Kelli and I went out for dinner tonight in celebration of finishing our unit. It was one of those times when nobody is in a rush and you just sit and stay together long after the bill has been paid. Just like Cari, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte, we're all in different stages of life with different issues and concerns. Kristen is married and trying to work out her schedule to finish school and move on with her life. Kelli is in a relationship and is unsure of where she'll be when adulthood hits following graduation in May. Traci has just finished an incredible college volleyball career and is on the verge of a new and exciting relationship while she tries to decide if she will follow her own dreams or the plans her family has for her. And you know me. I constantly juggle work, school, friends and family with a boy entering the picture on occasion. As always we shared stories and concerns about life, teaching, roommates, boys, and of course laughed a lot and ate. We took the long way home as we looked at a couple of perspective houses for Chelsea and I next semester and I eventually dropped everyone off and we all returned back to the normal life as we know it. It's hard to picture what life will look like in a year, but I can guarantee that whatever is in store we won't be able to face it without the help of our girlfriends!

Looking Forward

Another weekend is coming to an end and our little corner of the world rests in peaceful silence for the night. Chelsea has been working on complicated paper about the media's role in WWII and is at her honeys house spending some time. Randi hasn't felt well today so is hopefully sleeping off her ailments and will wake refreshed. Samantha has driven home a few times this weekend and has gone to bed earlier than I've known her to in a while. Now for me. I spend the whole day yesterday in Tyler with Mom. I had to take a certification test in the afternoon so we went over in time for that and she shopped while I tested. She picked me up and we went to eat and did a little more shopping. At Bath and Body Works I purchased my annual Christmas season shower gel and lotion. Twisted Peppermint was the selected fragrance. We've learned in our education and cognitive development classes that peppermint stimulates the brain. We'll see. I was beat after the drive home so I curled up early and watched the first few episodes of the 6th and final season of Sex and the City. The 6th season is long and broke into two parts so I still have a ways to go but I'm starting to think about how I'll miss it when its over. That sounds pathetic. I'll stop with that now. Anyway, after Sunday School today I went home to my parents house. They didn't make it to church this morning as they were home dealing with the aftermath of a flooded house due to the faucet in mine and Lydia's bathroom breaking off in the wall yesterday. I think Mom found some kind of guilty joy in getting the phone call from Dad telling her what had happened. The faucet has broken before and much to Mom's protest has been temporarily fixed for the last several years. I think it secretly made her day that Dad was the one who had to clean up the mess after she's told him over and over that the faucet needed to be fixed for good. Anyway, we lounged around and watched tv for most of the afternoon until I had to come back to town to finish my unit project. That's right. Our big unit project is due tomorrow and we finished tonight. We are very proud and plan to go out to dinner in celebration sometime this week. The end of the semester is in plain sight and I couldn't be more excited. I have a pretty big paper to finish up so after a few nights off this week to regroup from the unit I plan to get going on that and knock it out before coasting across the finish line and into the holidays. Chelsea and I continue to look for a house for next semester. We have a lead that I'll be looking into this week but some lingering questions on the safety of the neighborHOOD, if you catch what I mean, might shut that door on that one. If all fails we'll fall back to campus living but for now really long for the independence of our own place for our student teaching semester. It will be interesting to see what pans out. What exciting weeks await!

Torn Jeans and Broken Hearts

Following a busy week, I started the weekend off with 2 babysitting jobs on the calendar. Saturday I got up, ran errands, and then went to spend what I thought would be a relaxing afternoon keeping Marley. She was napping when I got there so I started some laundry and lightly snoozed on the couch until her mumbles woke me and I went to get her up. I picked out an outfit and bow, changed her and strapped her in her seat for a yummy afternoon snack. Now you must know that Sara had warned me that Marley had thrown up that morning but seemed to be fine. As she snacked on her gold fish I stepped into the laundry room to switch clothes out while keeping an eye on her. I walked back to the kitchen just in time for her to puke with great force all over herself and the kitchen. It was awful to look at the nasty mess I had to clean up but more awful to look into her big sweet eyes as she silently pleaded for help. I picked her up (resisting a hug and kiss) and rushed her to the bathroom. A bath cheers everybody up. After her bath she patiently watched tv in the living room as I tackled the clean up. It reminded me of being in elementary school, as either a student or teacher, and hearing the call over the intercom, "Can the custodian please report to room 10?" and everybody cringes as they know what awaits him. I kept waiting for him to show up. He never did. After that clean up and the clean up of the second puke attack, I rocked Marley until Sara and Annabelle returned. Exhausted, I went and spent the night at Mom and Dad's. Sunday afternoon, following a great morning at church, some play time with the Truelove kids and a short nap in my bed, I began getting ready for night church. As I threw on my favorite best jeans, my toe got caught in a small hole that had worn around the bottom and created a large tear right up the inseam. I was angry. I found something else to wear and left for church but with a bad attitude. I now needed to add a trip to Longview to the weeks list as I relied on that particular pair of jeans for several days wardrobe.
At church James and Stacia Runnels were sharing their families testimony through the illness of their 4th (of 5) daughter Rose. To shorten their story if you aren't familiar with it, Rose was born and appeared to be a perfect. After Stacia began to notice slight abnormalities as Rose grew older but failed to gain weight and thrive, the Dr's checked her out and found a hole in her heart caused by a very rare heart disease. The surgery was successful to repair it but at the time it was unknown that in a few short years Rose would need another operation to repair a lung issue secondary to her heart defect. Rose is now a healthy 5 year old. Their story of faith is truly remarkable. At the end of their story, James compared Roses "broken heart" to the broken hearts of the world. In Roses case a very talented surgeon fixed her heart but Jesus is the ultimate great physician who, with loving grace, is able to fix any broke heart without fail every time. I was quickly burdened for these broken hearts and all of a sudden the torn jeans on the floor back in my room were way down on the list. I did find the opportunity to go to Longview this morning and returned with a great new pair of jeans. Life is good! A great week awaits!