When I grow up . . .

I do believe that this is my 100th post or perhaps 99. I was planning on fulfilling my pal Babzy's meme for this momentous event up until I was drifting off to dream land last night. You'll get deep thoughts by Amanda instead . . .

At our Singles' Bible Study last night we began a new book. I was thrilled by the mere title of the first chapter of this book, knowing very little about it. The title was "You are not half of a cookie" or something close to that. I couldn't resist the sweet "Aww!" that escaped my lips, when Pastor Steve was talking about something else entirely, and it just slipped out without any thought or control! Fortunately no one seemed to notice and the study went on. The first chapter of the book managed to hit almost every one of my personal soapboxes. You know, those stories and experiences that God has laid on your own heart so strongly that you feel the need to share them any time the opportunity arises? Yep, those! I really enjoyed the chapter and was just so joyous throughout! Truly, out of the overflow of my heart my mouth speaks and I had so much to say! Sometimes I wonder if I am talking too much, but I genuinely feel like God is speaking to me and I can't help but share! I am conscious of that possibility though, and get really excited to see others step forward in conversation! I am simply adoring God and where He has me right now, and I hope that it blesses others some how . . . I am excited to be counted among the leadership of this ministry and am enjoying being a part of it so much right now. We are talking about going on a missions trip to Georgia this summer and to Mexico in 2009 some time(topics for another post!).

Last night after the study and some other tasks, I was chatting with a new girl. Well, I say "new girl" but she isn't really. She walked into our Monday study after having come to church for a month or two and announced "I'm looking for you!" Now, after 3 weeks, it feels like she's been here for ever. Her confidence and willingness to jump right in is more of a blessing to me than I can express. Such an encouragement. Anyway- in our talk, she told me "You are who I want to be someday!" WOW! What an honor, a privilege and a responsibility! I understood what she was saying, I too had looked at other Christians and thought- I want to be like them someday! I didn't mean brown hair, serving in this specific ministry, etc, but that I wanted the joy that they had, the confidence that only comes from the Spirit of Christ, and the peace that they had with it all. I have tasted that in the last few months, enjoying and exploring the place God has for me - uniquely! No one else in this world can fulfill my place and calling like I can. No one. This was a mind boggling thing when I realized that I had a purpose that no one else could be fulfilling, and it was going to waste because I wasn't stepping up to the challenge. Heart breaking.

This being said, I am so thankful to God that He has a plan for me, and that He loves me enough to be patient with me. I've wasted too much time being a couch potato Christian.

The pressure is on, the challenge has been declared to keep up with the chariots and the horses, instead of being tired by mere foot men in this battle(A rough paraphrase of Jeremiah- "If you can't keep up with the footmen, how will you keep up with the chariots?" I know that having said this, there will be bad days, my new found friend will get to know more of the real me(the me who gets tired and crabby when sick, who struggles to maintain control of my bad attitude- which is more than I've done in the past!) and may not like me and I will become self involved again when the next wave of sickness and exhaustion hit. This is inevitable. Still I thank God. Again, I'll get back up and stagger back into the battle that is life. Again, I will fall at His feet and my gratitude and adoration will grow exponentially, all the while aching to be at home with my God in heaven, when this ache inside of me is truly and finally fulfilled.

Perhaps the meme will be 101.

Amanda

I'm so busy . . .

my head is spinning! It's been a full week, no wait- it's only Tuesday. Seems it's been a full couple of weeks! What has kept me so busy? I HAVE NO IDEA! Okay, I'll try to remember, try to stay with me, okay? On my days off the week before last, I visited with my family for a while, and then went over to my Grandma's house, where I hooked her up with an email account and changed her broken outdoor light. The next day my folks came into town to go garage saling and out to eat, and I bought my Grandma a new exterior light fixture(Early Christmas present, whoo-hoo!). The next day included buying mass quantities of fleece for my new blanky- I've made them for everyone else in my family, now it's my turn! No simple project for mine though, overkill extraordinaire is tying and sewing it in several locations. Which is, of course, why it's still not finished!

Thursday night included boiling and mashing 30 pounds of potatoes for our retreat last weekend. Delicious of course! Friday I took off of work early so I could do a drive by of the Doctor's office, where I was diagnosed with "post-viral bronchitis", yippee. I had gotten to the point where coughing fits were triggered by breathing, a trait that makes you very unpopular when you're sleeping with 10 or 15 other people in a barrack style room. Upon our arrival in Wausau Wisconsin(A solid 2 hours form home, more with that darn detour, self inflicted), I was tired and ill and ready for bed. I tried my best to hold my tongue, a real feat for me in tired mode, and managed to come back out of my foul mood before too long. Yeah! The retreat was fan-frigging-tastic! One of my favorite speakers came from Minneapolis, where he is involved with a ministry called Steiger International and where he also pastors the church called "The Salvage Yard". He has such a gift for teaching! We also got to meet his new wife from New Zealand, who is just as wonderful!

After a few detours, a meal stop and a stop to drop off some friends, I continued home, finally arriving at 10:30pm. After a couple more things, I was off to bed . . . Sunday came early and stayed late. I went to visit the folks I'm house sitting for that evening. They showed me how to turn up their heat, crank their stereo and told me to make my self to home! Party time! Just kidding, who has time for that? Tonight is my first night in my new home(until November 14th, I think) and I'm still not settled. I have the whole house to myself, save MeanSteve the Cat, and I'm seriously at a loss. I've cooked my supper, turned on the TV(MeanSteve is now sitting on the couch watching it- no joke! What a great babysitter I am!) and am now in the office because I prefer my computer to theirs and none of the living room plugs have the third prong to fit my computer plug. I haven't even ventured upstairs yet. What ever will I do with a whole house to myself? One thing I will for sure not be doing, thanks to their lack of window coverings on the main floor, and thanks to neighbors in fairly close proximity, is dancing naked through the house. Some people just have to take the fun out of everything!!

Anyway- I'm 15 minutes closer to my job now, so the commute is a mere 50-55 minutes. What will I do with all my time? Again, no nude dancing. The options are slim.

I'm hoping to get that meme from Babzy from way- back out next. It'll be my hundredth post, and it seems to be fitting. I've also found that I've been trying to pace myself, not posting, simply because it's my 100th and I want it to be more than this post was! Sorry I'm not more creative. Thanks for sticking it out!

Stay tuned for my hundredth!
A

Road Trip . . .

I've had so many questions about how my new job and my commute are going (all of my adoring fans! . . . or the voices in my head?) that I thought I'd better address it. The 1 hour 15 minute drive is oddly not boring (either direction). My first of many obstacles is the darkness itself. I'll speak to all you "normal" folks who are probably not on the road by 6:15 am. We are losing daylight quickly friends.It's dark for the majority of my drive now and it's only October. Yikes.

The next obstacle that I face is the weather, in this case, torrential downpours. Okay, even mere sprinkles make the drive a little harder. Construction has for the most part abated. The cones are still looming at the side of the freeway, mocking me, threatening to creep back out to the middle of my lanes, attempting to force 2 lanes of traffic through only one lane. Next are those damnable moving targets. No, not other drivers, but animals! I've seen dogs, cats, fox, (dead) skunk, and most recently deer. Thanks for staying out of my path little critters!

Overcoming obstacles . . .

I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve to avoid these obstacles, including a strong cuppa french pressed joe, and some loud music. I'm trying to set me a new record on the number of times in a day I can hear the same song. My latest record is today's 4 of Matchbox Twenty's newest song. Add in hearing them interview live on TWO, count them, 2, radio stations and I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that I spend too much time in the car! Another favorite includes Delilah by the Plain White Tees. My next car will be better on gas mileage and have louder speakers! Perhaps my favorite way of overcoming the boredom obstacle is entertaining myself. Singing so loudly the lady 3 cars behind me, and the inevitable farm machinery operator in front of me, can hear me clearly. Dancing so wildly my car lurches. Talking on my cell phone. Channel surfing on the radio, I mean who can beat driving to "Dancing Queen" or "Another One Bites the Dust" or a good Flashdance song? And who can help but dance? Last but not least, smiling while stuck in traffic(sometimes combined with any of the above). So if you ever see someone like myself bee-bopping to the tunes that are causing their car to bounce, simply wave and smile back, mmmkay? It will make their day!

A long week, for a short one!

After typing my title, I began to ponder that it could mean a couple of different things. 1. That the week was long, considering it was a "short week", or B. It was a long week for me, a short person. Okay, well that made sense in my head anyway! This is why I sometimes wait so long to post. If I try to force blogging deep thoughts, you end up with vertically challenged folk under unusual amounts of stress.

Seriously, though. This week marked another couple of firsts in my new job. My first parent-teacher conferences on Monday night and Wednesday afternoon. I was at work Monday from 7:45am to 7:45pm. Yaaawn . . . figure in the 1 hour 15 minute commute before the day and again after and double YAAWWNN! Wednesday the kids got out early so we could have more parent-teacher conferences. I also hosted my first IEP meeting. This is where I plan, with the input of parents, regular education teachers, and other interested individuals, a student's educational goals, accommodations and testing for the next year, while looking back at the last year and the student's present levels of performance. I promise, this is the last time I will lapse into quite so many details about special education. I won't bore you with IEPs, LRE, PLEPs, LD, EBD, CD, ADD or ABCs. Special education really does have it's own alphabet. I promise, I'm done. I'll move on, ASAP!

I had Thursday and Friday off of work to recuperate. I had seriously considered going to our local teacher's convention, but sleep called my name more loudly! It was a great weekend of visiting with my family, shopping, garage sale-ing, and going out to eat. Refreshing.

I hope to post more later, a meme as of yet unfulfilled, something more creative perhaps? I'm sapped . . .

Thanks Dorky Dad for the shout out! I mean, shucks! It's nice to know you care! My thanks to all who swung on by to visit! Hope to see you all again soon!

Quick fix.

I arrived home from my folks tonight to find that my neighbors across the street are apparently having a party in the back parking lot of the apartment complex. One that sounds like it involves live music. I could feel my hackles rising with every bass beat. I was tired and hot and fighting to keep my peace. I went outside and looked at my neighbors' apartment and their lights were still on. I tapped lightly on their door and to my joy, hubby answered. He would shut their windows and I would turn on the central air. Summer came back this week and I was hot! At 10:30, it was still in the upper 70s, with a low of lower 70s, and humid! It seemed like a good excuse to turn on the air, making it possible to sleep with the windows closed, adding one more barricade to the aggravating bass and loud tunes coming from the college students across the street. I will certainly sleep better with the air than I would have without!

Good night!

A

After thought: As I'm checking some blogs, Saturday Night Live (SNL) is on. I looked up to see that they were doing a piece called Rowlf and the Swedish Chef. I'm not sure it was all clean, as some of the conversation may have had more in it than I was listening to, but I'd recommend you check it out if you like or liked the Muppets at some point! I thought it was great costuming and fun to see anyway! I'm pretty sure NBC has now put SNL online, which means that after 2:00am you'll be able to check it out at www.nbc.com. It's towards the end, past the Weekend Update and before what I sense to be the last music number. I love the Muppets . . . they take me way back.

I hear voices . . .

singing the Hallelujah Chorus. Can you hear them too? My latest computer issue is fixed. I finally got to the right screen and disabled the right monitor. Not like I've been trying this in all the other screens for the last week! Grr. I'm just happy it's fixed. My google page is normal again. No more oversized fonts and bubble letters! Well, unless I do it on purpose!

Yippee!

It's October 5th and its thuderstorming out something fierce. "They" have mentioned the possibility of record breaking highs tomorrow. 84 or 85 F!?!?! What the! Humid. I should do some research and find out how often it hits 80+ after my birthday?

Oooh, I gotta go. I'm shutting down and unplugging. BIG lightening and thunder. I wonder if we'll lose power again? Seems par for the course in this neighborhood! Bum luck here.

Bring it on Home . . .

I heard this song on my trip home tonight. Over tired and beat up(almost literally!). It really resonates within me of my relationship with God. He knows what I need, and is wooing me to bring it on home to Him. I long to give it all up to Him, but sometimes that weight on my shoulders makes me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile. Really, His burden is easy and light. The one I hold on to is exhausting. I've found myself encouraging my high schoolers to unload on me, I have broad shoulders, I can handle it, better than a teenager at least! God wants that for me. He's got a much better grip on this life of mine!

It's a great song.

DYNOMITE!

The highlight of my day occurred at 8:10 AM or so. From out side of my classroom there came a little boy's voice (3rd grade hallway) singing, well- at least repeating -in a gravelly little voice, "TNT, I'm dino-mite! TNT, I'm dino-mite!" And he just kept a-singing! Finally the bell rang, and soon after he disappeared to his classroom.

Does anybody remember JJ's "DYNOMITE!"? What show was that? Oh yeah, Good Times. Jeepers I'm showing my age . . . as the show only ran from 1974-1979 however, I grew up on the reruns!

I'm off to bed, judging by the connection of story A and story 2, above, I must be tired and more than a little out of it. Good night! Have a DYNOMITE day tomorrow, mkay?