Birthday #25 and Other Things

Hello friends! I planned to blog much earlier in the week, but life just kind of got in the way.

This week was one of the hardest I've had in a long time.

It started Monday, on my birthday, at about 5:30am. I was in the shower and heard my phone get a text message. I thought, "Oh! That's nice! Someone is sending me an early morning birthday wish." Well I got out of the shower, flipped my phone open and read what my message said. "Call as soon as you can. Ella needs to go to the vet." It was from my parents. Ella had been staying there because the fences at my house are down and my precious princess likes to run. So I called and they said she was crying in pain, shaking and couldn't jump up on things (which is abnormal for her - she is a kangaroo in dog's clothing). So my birthday started in tears and trying to figure out when I was going to take her to the vet in my already jam packed day.

So I went to work, all upset and wishing I hadn't gotten out of my bed this morning. Everyone was crazy at work because it was our first day back after or six day Hurricane Ike vacation (which I found out that we don't have to make up! woohoo!!). I asked my principal if I could take off a half day in the afternoon and very graciously, he said yes and told me they were my days anyways. Well I entered it into our sub system on the computer not really expecting to get a sub because subs don't like coming to our school because it is so far out from the rest of the district. A lot of subs don't like coming to Special Ed classrooms either, especially LIFE Skills. But I checked on the status of it 10 minutes later and someone had picked up the job. And as it turns out, she was fabulous! Sometimes the subs we get are AWFUL and should not be allowed to work with children in any capacity. So I left at noon and headed to my parents house. One nice thing was that my mom had time to take me to Chick-Fil-A for lunch before her doctor's appointment. So I ate lunch and then picked up Ella to take her to the vet. Poor baby. She was in so much pain. She was very good at the vet though. They determined that she probably had pulled a muscle in her back playing too much and sent me home with muscle relaxants and cortisone pills. That was a fun $200 trip to the vet (to be fair, half of it was the flea and tick medication I needed for her, so it was kind of my own doing). There went my birthday money. Ugh.

Well, I decided to bring Ella back to my house where it would be quiet and not much action. One unfortunate side effect of the cortisone pills is the increase thirst and increased need to pee. I've been limiting Ella's access to water (only giving her about a half a bowl every hour or so). And she has been peeing non stop everywhere! Sick! She's finally figured out that the towels in my room are where she is supposed to pee rather than on my shoes or directly on the hardwood floor. But then she has decided that even when I'm just in the next room, it is okay to pee and poo in the house still. So rather than telling me she has to go (which I take her every hour when I'm home!), she just goes. Argh.

Well on Tuesday, work was okay. Which was nice. My new kid has really started to adjust and had very few fits this week. However, when I got home from work on Tuesday, my power had gone off! What!?!? Now I know some people in Houston are still without power from Ike, but I had had power for a week! Its not supposed to go back off once you have it! Well, it turns out that the electricity people had taken everyone on the street down so they could get the people on our street without power the whole week up and running again. Unfortunately, I had a ton to do! Like go to the grocery store so I could eat. Like make a dessert for the next nights dinner meeting I was attending. Like do some work on my computer for work and for church. So I packed up my computer and headed to a friend's house so I could get at least one of the three done. Well, by the time I got home, power had fortunately been restored, but what a scare! I was moving back to my parents' house if it had gone on any longer!

Wednesday was also okay at work. I went to my dinner meeting (another girl who didn't have work covered dessert for me). That was fine. Until I got a phone call from my mom in the middle of it. She had had an MRI and other tests run earlier this week and still has some more next week. Without going into detail, my mom might be facing some pretty serious health issues in the near future. Just be praying for her and my family. Its a little scary. So that was another fun day.

Thursday, I got to work at 6:40am and left work at 6:40pm. They were having this parent's night for the general ed and other staff was required to stay and babysit the kids who came so parents could listen to the presentations in peace. Nice. It was a long day. My poor dog had to stay in my room for 12 hours. I felt horrible! Well, I grabbed dinner from Wendy's on the way home because as I said before, I hadn't been to the grocery store yet. And they gave me regular Coke instead of Diet Coke. Sick out! After dinner, I had to go to the grocery store. In the dark. Which I strongly dislike. Those are times I really get frustrated with being single. I just feel vulnerable and unprotected in situations like that. And the neighborhood I live in isn't neccessarily all bad, but there are some sketchy spots, so I just get nervous. After spending a lot of money at the grocery store, I came home and baked and made some Tzatziki (yummy Greek cucumber yogurt dip!) and crashed.

Friday was actually okay. It was early dismissal for the kids and they were really great with the schedule changes (sometimes schedule changes really make life difficult for my kids). We decorated some cookies for our cooking lab (both my birthday and one of my aids birthdays were this week so it was fitting) and they loved that and we had some extra recess which they really enjoyed and the weather has been fairly nice down here in Houston lately.

This weekend was okay. I had to work a lot yesterday on grades and other work things. But I got to bake yummy peanut butter cake (recipe that my grandma gave me - those are always good!) for my dinner meeting last night. Baking and cooking just relaxes me. I love it. I'll post that recipe

Today, I think I am relaxing a bit, working a bit, maybe walking Ella and then meeting my parents for lunch (sushi maybe - yum!). We also are going to get my birthday present. I finally decided what I wanted. So excited! Check it out!

I know you are jealous. Maybe if your nice to me, I will make you a cake with it!

So I guess its a good end to a not so good week. I would like a redo on my birthday week. And I still haven't celebrated with friends. Maybe next week.

But next week is a new week and God is still faithful. No doubt.

Hope y'all are doing well! Love you!

Dx: Cabin Fever!

*Sorry for the blueness of the last post. I was in a funk. It is gone now. Sorry.

For those of you who know me well, you know that sitting still is not something I do very well. So the past few days have been hard for me. I am very blessed to be sitting in a house with power and water, I finally got gas in my car and did not have to wait in line (a small miracle in itself - for real!) and I have food to eat that isn't out of a can. And I don't have to work until Monday. Nice. So I decided that in my abundance of free time, I would help those who weren't as blessed as I have been this week. My heart breaks when I read the news online. I want to reach out. I want to be there. Well, my church was supposed to be a POD for FEMA, but that didn't happen, so the church doesn't need any volunteers at this point. And I can't just walk out on the streets and offer to help, so where do I go to help?

So back to nothing to do. I had a nice day of sleeping in, eating lunch at Red Robin with my dad, visiting with my long time buddy, Audrey, for hours at Starbucks (I got a Venti for the price of a Tall because they messed up my order and felt bad), running errands with Kate, eating Sonic for dinner (although my stomach is now thinking that that was not the brightest of ideas) and then watching One Night with the King (cheesy but excellent) with Kate and her bf. So I busied myself today. It was good. And come to think of it, all free! My dad got lunch, Audrey bought my coffee (and later a Diet Coke) because I picked her up and drove her around (poor thing had a tree branch smash her windshield) and my birthday is on Monday, and Kate bought my dinner. Very nice.

So what's on tap for tomorrow? Good question. Surprisingly (even to myself), I feel very motivated to run. Gasp! I can't explain it, but the weather is beautiful, the streets are too debris-filled to risk riding my bike and getting mulitple flats, and I have lots of pent up energy. I was going to go today, but caught in traffic for too long (another story). So I think I will wake up and try that (and try not to die!). I am itching to visit Target (with what money, you ask? I wish I had a good answer for that!) so I might venture over there. In the afternoon, I am contemplating driving to the thriving metropolis of Waco! My brother has been wanting me to come, so I figure while I have the rare free few days, why not? I am still contemplating. Ashley might come with me too because she has the same diagnoses I do. So that will be a fun little adventure if we decide to go. We will come back Friday if we go, so it won't be that long. Just enough to get us out of the house and in a city that is operating under normal conditions.

So yeah. That is my exciting post-Ike life.

Hope you are doing well! God bless!

Do you ever have those days...

...where you just don't feel right?

Its one of those.

I get them from time to time. From out of nowhere. And looking at the blessings I am currently enjoying in my life, I shouldn't have them. I should be grateful that I have a family who loves and supports me, friends that speak truth into my life, a great new house with a great new roomate, a job I love most days, a house that isn't flattened by a powerful hurricane, and the list goes on. I shouldn't have blah days that I am whiny, frustrated and just ick to be around (I don't so much like being around myself on these days).

So where do they come from and why do I have them?

I wish I knew.

Maybe its boredom. But I had stuff to keep me busy today. But I stayed home because I just plain didn't want to. I could have helped cleaned up the church and fellowshipped with friends, but I stayed at my parents house in bed with my dog (Ella is another sweet blessing in my life - she just makes me happy). I just didn't feel like driving the half hour to church (maybe not the best idea anyways given the shortage on gas). I could have moved back to my house and helped my roomate fix up some things there. But I didn't. Ugh.

And to top it all off, I start reading blogs. And it seems that when people get married, it is time to start a blog about how happily married they are and on and on and on. I really am so excited for all my married friends and this new season of life they are entering into. Seriously. So precious. But sometimes, seeing their happiness and the companionship they have with their spouses makes it hard to be content with the season God has me in.

But oddly enough, right now, I have so much joy in where and what God has me doing right now. Love it.

I will be 25 next Monday. Wow. Did I really just type that? In the back of my mind, I still feel very much like a little girl playing grown up most of the time. Weird. I told my dad today that when I entered college, in my mind, I would have been married about 2-3 years ago and living a happily ever after life with my amazing husband. Interesting how we plan these "fantastic" lives in our minds and how far off the mark we can sometimes be.

But you know, as far off as I was, I really am glad I was far off. Yes, I struggle with contentment in my single-hood. But you know, if that is where God wants me, what a beautiful thing that is. For real.

Okay, so writing is therapeutic. Maybe I just needed to get that out. I'm sorry. I need to avoid that. But thanks for reading.

Well, tomorrow's post will hopefully be cheerier. Just one of those days...

Post-Ike Post

Okay. Ike is over. Thank goodness! Our (as in my parent's - its where I am staying) power went out on Friday night and finally came back on for good about 10am this morning. We had a few flickers of power last night and thought we were in the clear but it was just some cruel teasing. We had water all throughout so I washed my hair in the sink yesterday and took a shower this morning. Bad situations are much better to deal with when you are clean.

We didn't have a ton of damage in our area. A lot of downed trees and road signs. About a 6 foot section of my parents' gutter came down. Our fence is leaning a little bit. Other houses in their neighborhood got a little worse with fences all the way down. But overall, not too bad compared to what it could have been. I think I will be going on a picture taking adventure here soon so you can see some of what I am talking about.

To entertain ourselves last night, we got a little creative. I had the bright idea of having a shadow puppet show/contest, but my mom is the only one who actually did it. Funny because she was the one most opposed to the idea, yet the only participant. Nice. We also turned on an oldies station and danced in the dark to things like the "YMCA" and put the flashlight on as a spotlight. We also ate way too many chocolate chip cookies and 100 cal packs. I don't want to see cookies or baked cheetos for a really long time. Hot dogs either.

Today, my dad and I drove around on a reconaissance mission to see what was open and who had power. Some places do, some don't. The McDonalds and Whataburgers were all open with ridiculously long lines coming out of them. People are desparate. HEB and Randalls were open too, but also very zoo-like. We came back and worked on a crossword puzzle and the lights miraculously came on. Yay! After enjoying the AC, lights, computer and other missed electrical appliances, we were hungry for lunch. We drove around. We saw Buffalo Wild Wings was open, but the line was out the door. I like that place, but not enough to wait for an hour to eat wings that make my stomach hurt. As we were driving by, I noticed one of my very favorite restaurants, Pei Wei was open! Yum! And there was no line. I'm not even kidding. So we enjoyed some Pad Thai and Dan Dan Noodles for lunch. We were going to try to drive up to my school, but the lights were all blinky and it was taking entirely too long, so we turned around. I was planning on attending church tonight for the one worship service they were having, but they cancelled it. Boo.

So for now, I will be staying at my parent's house until water and lights are returned to my house. Work is cancelled for at least tomorrow if not longer, so I will find more exciting ways to entertain myself tomorrow. There is a curfew in the city of Houston all this week from 9pm-6am every night, so I won't be going out much. Even though my parents don't live in Houston, all my friends and activities are based there, so I probably won't get to see them all that much. Boo. But life will return to normal before we know it. So thats something to look forward to. Yay!

Anyways, I may post again today, because as you can probably guess, I am a tad bit bored and have a bad case of cabin fever.

God bless!

Despite Their Fears

Yeah, I know. 2 posts in one day. But there isn't a whole lot else to do, so why not blog.

Anyways, I've recently had a passion ignited for reading the writings of Old Testament prophets. I just started Ezra (I read Nahum and Zephaniah earlier this month) and found this amazing verse that really just spoke to my greatest struggle in life....fear.

Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the LORD, both the morning and evening sacrifices.
~Ezra 3:3~

To give you some background, the Israelites have just returned from exile. They are adjusting to life back in their homeland.

They are in a place where old memories of hurt, suffering, pain and bondage abound. They are surrounded by people they don't trust and feel threatened by them. And justifiably so.

Yet, despite all of that, they still praise and honor their God by building an altar and sacrificing offerings to Him. And both in the morning and at night. They began their day and ended their day turning their hearts to the Lord.

What a testament of faith in action the Israelites have provided for us in this instance.

I know for me, fear is often the single greatest thing that keeps me from obedience to God as well as intimacy with Him. I have all these pent up fears of being hurt and wounded and allow those fears to paralyze me and prevent me from moving forward.

Because we are human, we will have fear. But it is when we allow that fear to control our lives that it becomes a problem.

We need to be honoring and praising God at all times, no matter our situation or circumstance. We need to continually be offering sacrifices to Him. Now times have changed drastically since the days of the Israelites, but the concept is still the same.

Anyways, I just wanted to share this gem of a passage with you all. I know I am not the only one who battles fear (especially of people) on a daily basis. When we turn it all back to Him and praise His name, He can do wonderful and amazing things in our lives. Don't allow a selfish thing like fear keep you from Him and Him from you.

God bless!

ABCDEFGH Ike

So we've gotten through 8 letters of the alphabet without a hurricane turning towards Houston. We had a couple of little scares, but nothing to get excited about besides few drops of rain. Well, now Ike is kind of on a direct path for us and we are all hunkering down. Bottles of water, canned foods (a lot of which no one wants to eat but we have anyways), candles, flashlights, etc. abound. Everyone is all panicky. I can't decide if I am or not. Everyone seems to get all worked up about these things. I think I have decided to worry about it when something happens.

So far I am just sitting here with a much needed day off (its been a rather difficult week at work with the addition of a new, fairly difficult student to my class), and honestly kind of bored at my parents house. My friends are all hanging out and that sounds fun, but I guess if something were to really happen, I would much rather be with my family. I love my parents dearly, but sitting around all day with not much to do just isn't that exciting. I might even take a nap soon even though I slept 9 hours last night.

Anyways. Just be in prayer for Houston, Galveston and the surrounding areas no matter what happens. I shall post after the storm passes. And maybe even a few exciting updates/thoughts on life.

God bless!