Into the Real World

One Month

2010-06-01T14:32:00.000-04:00

Today marks the one month anniversary of Aaron and I being married. We had a beautiful wedding surrounded by people who love us. There were some major catastrophes: forgot to pay the caterer the day before the wedding and had to make my dad run out there that morning, minor catastrophes: who knew sparkling cider didn't always have twist off caps, and some not so pleasant conversations with family members that day. All of that said, it was a WONDERFUL DAY!!! I had the best matron of honor, mother in law and mom taking care of everything for me. The weather was PERFECT!!!! It was overcast (great for pictures), sprinkled here and there, and sunny when we drove home as Mr.and Mrs. Wood. The food was great, everyone pitched in to help clean up and best of all, everyone gave us compliments on the most important part: the wedding ceremony (especially the vows).

Now that we've been married one month I thought I should finally bring myself to blogging about our wedding and marriage thus far.

We have had a few disagreements so far (where to put the dish towel, whether or not to kill the ants who keep rudely invading our apartment and freaking me out, and when to get up/go to bed). All of these things are just little things that will be resolved in time. We also have decided Thursdays are "our" night. We have bible study Monday, Aaron has men's study Tuesday, Wednesday we hang out with the McKenneys, and the weekends are full of hanging out and church events so Thursdays are dedicated to US.

We have also had many joys this month: getting a TV Tuner card for the PC to turn it into the TV so we take the big bulky TV out of our living room and put it in the game room, spending lots of time with friends, getting to spend much more time with Brandon, and getting our car inspected for free and it passing (after gettting a new windshield washer pump).

We have been enjoying being married and all of the joys, challenges, and everyday stuff it brings.

I plan on writing more later but right now it's back to work for me.

Two weeks

2010-04-15T14:59:00.000-04:00

A lil over two weeks to go and I was doing ok with stress levels until yesterday when it hit me I had a ton of stuff missing from my to-do list and I'm not sure how to get it all done. None of it is really major stuff but man it's scary knowing there is only two weeks until the wedding. Holly and my mom have been great about helping out where ever possible. Friends have been terrific if not for Sally helping out so much and offering advice not sure how this all could get done. That said, Aaron is coming over for the next week or so to help me get some cleaning organizing done around the apartment since I don't really have a ton of time for it. He is a lifesaver. Can't wait until the wedding is over and we can actually enjoy spending time together instead of mostly wedding planning. We have been enjoying watching 1990s X-men together and we watched Blindside with Holly. We've also spent time with my family the past two weekends.

This weekend is our last premarital counseling, Pastor and Vikki are having us over to their house and that's very exciting except that not allowed in April weather word is supposed to appear.

Next weekend we have our bachelor/bachelorette parties. That is very exciting to me. So excited to spend time with bridesmaids and friends and family and such. Kristin has her final dance performance as a Slippery Rock Dance Student that weekend also so Aaron and I will be attending with our friend James. So proud of her.

We are so excited yet I'm freaking out. Can it be May 2nd now and we are married and relaxing??? Please??? That'd be great. :)

Erie Bridal Shower

2010-02-27T14:23:00.000-05:00

was amazing! I'm so thankful that Holly, Sally, and Liz worked so hard to put together a great bridal shower for me. When I first got there, they were setting out the food, had a card box and gift table set up and also had a plate that everyone got to sign that I had to bake when I got home but now it's safe to wash and use for food and stuff. Kinda cool!

I was so excited to greet all of my 30+ guests. My mom, sister, and Grandma H were able to come up. That was very nice. I got to see some friends I haven't talked to in a long time: my friend Michelle who I used to spend Thursday evenings with until I got really busy with wedding planning, Ramonita and Jean co-workers from CCDS, my cooperating teacher from student teaching, my boss and the children I nanny (I don't know what the correct verb would be so I just made it into a verb), one of Aaron's professors. Also there was Aaron's mom, sister Court, Aunt Sally, and some of the family from his dad's side of the family.

The first thing we did was eat lots of yummy foods: Holly's chicken, cheese, rice, broccoli casserole, bagels from Panara, a breakfast casserole, muffins and more. Yum Yum Yum! While we ate, I tried to visit with lots of friends, family and those that care about me. It was a great time. Then we played a game that was also fun but crazy for most of us. It was so HARD. We were given the last name of a tv couple, you had to name the husband, wife and tv show. Out of a possible 75, I think the highest score was a 46. Pretty challenging.

Next we played make one of your five team members into a bride using TP. Which is a classic game. I didn't want to participate but Aunt Sally and Courtney stole me as their bride. There were some really good ones though. Aunt Sally told me I looked like a cross between a nun and a terrorist. YAY! I believe our friend Carolyn Schuler won the contest YAY!

Then it was time for opening gifts. I got lots of wonderful gifts: hard-anodized cookware, new flatware, towels, a wedding hand making kit thing that I'm uber excited about, and lots more. Holly took pictures of me with my guests whenever I opened their gifts. That was a very nice touch as well! Did I mention I have wonderful friends and family? I love them all!

Aaron and his mommy before

We had a great time!

Playing the first game/talking

Greeting Michelle, not a great picture but one of the few I have of me from that day.

Dollar Dance???

2010-02-19T20:07:00.000-05:00

Aaron and I think we would like to do a dollar dance, but typically, you pay a dollar to dance with the bride/groom and get a shot. . . we aren't having alcohol. Do you think this would still be acceptable? Do you think it is a waste of time. I think sometimes people like this because they get a chance to dance with the bride and groom and talk to them a little bit more. I'm just trying to get a feeling for what's acceptable/what's not when there's no alcohol involved. Maybe we could have an alternative like chocolates or something? I am open to suggestions. Thanks,

Toaster

Long time

2010-02-13T10:47:00.000-05:00

No post.

I realize I haven't posted anything in a long time. The main reason for that is: I'm planning a wedding! YAY! I can't believe it. The wedding is 2.5 months away! Amazing! Aaron and I seem to be getting most of the things done that we need done. I still need to call back about the cake and tell them what we want on it.

We have our first bridal shower 1 week from today! I'm so excited. I can't believe it's here already! I don't really know much about it either. I just know that I am very excited to see some friends I haven't seen in a long time. :)

Aaron and I are working very hard to get everything to come together. He's working very hard at school and work right now. He's taking 3 online graduate level classes and working 4 days a week thus leaving him with little time for wedding planning but he still tries so hard to make it work.

We have started our premarital counseling and that is AWESOME! We love it. Our pastor and his wife are just amazing. We love them so much. They were so much fun to talk to during our 1st session that we can't wait for me. We are going through a book called "Before You Say 'I Do.'" It is taking a long time to go through it but that is quite alright. It asks a lot of good questions. Although to be honest, so far Aaron and I have talked about most of these topics. As we get further into the book I'm sure that will change.

Sally, my friend and MOH (matron of honor), has been helping me with the flowers. We have almost all of the bridesmaid flowers done, we have the corsages put together we just need to put ribbon on them. I need to buy one more flower for a bridesmaid because I apparently can't count. I still need to wrap my bouquet in ribbon, but it's at least assembled. I also need to buy the flowers for the boutonnieres (hardest word for me to spell, never get it right btw). I'm having a hard time finding the flowers that I want, which is slightly frustrating but I also don't get to go to the store much so we'll see when I actually get out there what I find. So far no luck.

Hopefully in the next month or so I will be having a favor making party and inviting some friends to help us make the favors. Many of my bridesmaids aren't in Erie so I might be relying on a few friends for this area.

I also still need to make the centerpieces, I just haven't quite figured out how to do it yet. *bites nails* I'm sure it will come together and Aaron gets done with classes March 20 (ish) which will also help.

March 20, is also the date of my second bridal shower (the Pittsburgh/my side of the family/people who live in Pittsburgh one). I'm also excited about that. Apparently mom, Aunt Susan, my sisters, my aunt Marie and Aunt Shirley have been working pretty hard on it. It's nice to hear my family is working together on this.

Also because of wedding planning, mom and I get to talk more. I think that she really likes that. So that is a good thing. I know she feels bad because she's not in Erie to help out more but, it's ok. We really want to do as much as we can on our own anyway. :) It's tricky trying to find a balance of showing you're responsible and paying for your own wedding, and letting your parents feel like they are helping you on the last shabang or whatever. I guess some parents feel like it's the last thing they'll really be able to help their daughter with so they are very glad to help. But I also don't want my parents to take out a loan to pay for my wedding (BAD IDEA).

The wedding website seems to be going over well. We've had quite a few people respond via the website and that's AWESOME! It makes me very happy. I was very happy to put so much of Aaron and I into our wedding. I got to design our invitations, Andrew helped us to design the wedding website, but it's really still very much us.

The only thing that is making me sad right now is that I'm having some issues with my grandparents about whether or not they will be coming to the wedding. If you could be praying about that I'd appreciate it. I really want them there but the reason they give for not wanting to come is rather silly and childish and makes me upset. I don't want to cave to their wishes (because we can't afford it) but, I also want them at my wedding. So please be praying about that.

I think that is probably all for now. Hopefully I'll be better at keeping you updated in the future.

Oldies but goodies

2009-12-18T22:13:00.000-05:00

So I might be obsessed with SYTYCD but that's ok with me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjlDfd7iMj8 < AMAZING DISCO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUuHK3csqEs < one of my all time favorites

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt650DW6YqA < so amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0kImsIcfYY < so sorry this one isn't better quality. . .
Ok, I think I'm done for now. . . there are soooo many good ones though!

Forgot to post this one! Amazing

2009-12-16T20:22:00.002-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNbEQwKdxjc

Perhaps my favorite dance ever on this show. . .

2009-12-16T06:43:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RPYt5s2opY

They are so stunning! She is totally my favorite dancer! Voted like 30 times last night. I'm going to post all of her dances from last night, but this by FAR was my favorite. Thank you for putting up with all of my Dance obsession.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2YY0AEmLTQ <
If nothing else watch at about 1:30 seconds for the ending of this dance. It's RIDICULOUS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4IwqJZ8Z9E < remember she is a CONTEMPORARY dancer. . . which is the first link I posted.
I totally want to learn how to do hip hop btw. It looks like so much fun! At least to me!

Amazing Dances

2009-12-14T18:21:00.001-05:00

Just watch these few dances . . .

^ they are married assassins in that one

The next is a beautiful Viennese waltz did NOT like the female dancer in this number at all this season until this dance. She did AMAZING!

ChaCha that was steamy. She is my favorite Contestant.

Wedding updates

2009-12-10T21:21:00.000-05:00

Wow, I haven't posted in a long time . . . sorry about that.

Ok, so here is the line up in terms of bridesmaids/groomsmen for the wedding.
Sally McKenney - Matron of Honor escorted by Best Man Brandon Campbell
Elizabeth Ellis escorted by Andrew Chernauskas
Robin McConkey escorted by James Price
Colleen Wallace escorted by Andrew Law
Kristin Placek escorted by Justin McKenney
Sarah Wood escorted by Dan Kubacki
Courtney Wood escorted by Brian Baldwin
Flower PRINCESS (she told me that today) the little girl I nanny escorted by Ringbearer Colton (My nephew)

(We were supposed to have 8 bridesmaids and groomsmen, but 1 bridesmaid we found out is going to be due with TWINS around the time of the wedding so she decided to withdraw from the wedding. I'm so excited for her but will miss having her there with me.)

The girls all were allowed to pick their own dresses from Milanoo.com. The bridesmaids will be in sage and Sally (MOH) will be in grape. They also can pick their own shoes as long as they are white.

I'm planning on having calla lillies for the main flowers, but not sure what to use for the complimentary flowers, if you have any suggestions please let me know. I was thinking sweet peas at first, but I can't really find many artificial sweet peas (I'm going with artificial because of finances.)

We also know what our favors and centerpieces will be. We will be having the wedding and reception at Grace Church in McKean!!! Praise God. The wedding will be at 1:00 pm on May 1, 2010 and then the reception will be at 3:30 most likely. We have our photographer, my former neighbor is altering my dress for me, her daughter is going to do my hair, and we have a dj.

I'm panicking a little though, not sure why. We have the containers for our favors, just need to fill them and come up with tags. We know Andrew C. will be doing our wedding website for us. Hopefully we'll be getting that done over Christmas break.

We are registered at Target and will be registering at JCPenney. We're just having a hard time getting to the stores with Aaron's schedule.

Hopefully mom and I can work on getting shoes, my veil, and some flowers done over the Christmas break. We'll see though, not sure what will happen.

I'm getting very excited. My sister sent me pictures of me in my dress, and I'm even more excited now. I really love my dress. It's gorgeous! I'm so excited. I have 4 possible invitations lined up (once we get our wedding website, I'll probably start printing them.)

Please be praying for us as we continue to prepare for the wedding.

SYTYCD

2009-12-02T20:14:00.001-05:00

I love this show!!! I have 8 favorites out of the 10 that are left, It's crazy! But seriously check out this dance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4sXgFnw6lQ.

Hairstyles

2009-11-10T21:34:00.000-05:00

More help with wedding planning. I want an updo for my wedding, (I sweat too much not to). I don't know what to do. I want to be able to wear a veil, possibly a tiara, and hopefully a blusher (the part that goes over your face). I don't find a lot of hairstyles that I like though. I don't want just a french twist, it's my wedding, I've wearing french twists FOREVER. Don't want a bun, I danced for 10 years. I want something that will still look pretty after (if) I take the veil off. I don't know. Any ideas? Please email them to me if you have any ideas as I don't want Aaron to see them obviously. Thanks.

PS. I hope I'm not turning into Bridezilla.

Need some help with ideas

2009-11-09T16:15:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to figure out what to do for the centerpieces for our wedding. We both would really like to incorporate photos into our centerpieces and DO NOT want flowers in the centerpieces. We were thinking of doing the photo cubes with pictures of us through the years, but they are only 2" by 3" and I'm not convinced now that they will be big enough. To be honest we will probably have about 30 tables but we don't want to pay an arm and a leg on centerpieces.

If you have any ideas PLEASE let me know.

Oh and by the way I have been busy planning for the wedding lately, and got terribly sick this past weekend (fever of 103 Saturday, 102 Sunday and finally back to normal today). I also have a terribly annoying cough that seems to think it is important to stick around. I disagree but we are fighting.

Anyway on a happier note, on Friday we heard that there is a 90% chance we will be having our wedding at Grace Church in McKean. We meet with our photographer this Sunday and we get to meet with the wedding coordinator from Grace Dec. 5th. Things are starting to come along. We are nearly certain we have our guest list finalized also (although my mom hasn't had input yet, so that may change but I'm hoping not as we are very near 350 people.) We picked out our colors of Sage and Grape (that's what the bridesmaid dresses are called). And I got photoshop for my birthday HOORAY! So I get to work on designing our invitations! HOORAY! I've always enjoyed trying to design things and I feel like it will be very special if I do get to design our invites. Thanks again everyone!

Slacking

2009-11-03T06:14:00.002-05:00

I have been so busy lately with wedding planning/cleaning my apartment that I haven't had a lot of time to blog. But I bought a wedding dress! YAY YAY YAY! It's gorgeous and was in my price range and makes me super happy! :)

Day 6 of the challenge. . .

2009-10-28T22:13:00.000-04:00

had a hard time today getting the pictures in, just didn't have a lot of time, the last 5 or 6 were done about 10 minutes ago.

Holly's Challenge Day 5 (Tuesday)

2009-10-27T20:23:00.000-04:00

Amidst watching SYTYCD, cleaning a bit, making dinner, and putting away groceries, here is what I came up with. Sorry it's not super great today. I have my laptop, Disney cup, fall leaves, our pumpkin we created today, Go Fish Guys (sometimes my sanity), a congratulatory card, Wegman's shopper card, and fall leaf decoration.

Day 4 of Holly's challenge

2009-10-26T18:28:00.000-04:00

Again I used Picasa 3 to create the collage. Today's is just a bunch of random things. The potatoes I made for dinner, the seasonings I used. R playing with her toy and the toy and it's shadow. My "Tastefully Simple" shelf. A veggie puff, the sunrise, cook books and a figurine.

Thanks for checking them out.

Holly's Challenge Day 3

2009-10-26T18:23:00.000-04:00

Sorry I didn't get to post these yesterday but here are the photos for day 3 of the challenge.

Included are MY Hat (don't listen to Aaron it's totally mine), the puppies, and the boys talking outside of church.

I used Picasa 3 to create the collage. It makes it really easy for me. Also the picture I used for the background is my car's inspection sticker.

Holly's Challenge Day #2 (Saturday)

2009-10-24T14:35:00.000-04:00

This morning Holly and I went out scouting places for the engagement photos tonight and stumbled upon some pictures for today's challenge. Here are my 9.

Memory Lane in Mead Park

Good for photos, not good for eating!

I just like this memorial for some reason.

she took me backdrop hunting!

cool moss covered log

Also cool for photo taking, bad for eating.

that's where we were. I love that place. A gem in Corry!

No idea what this is but thought it looked cool. I love the wispy leaves.

The decline of fall.

*Please remember all of these are uneditted. I'm borrowing Aaron's computer while he sleeps.*

Challenge: Day #1 (Friday)

2009-10-24T14:25:00.000-04:00

All of these photos are unedited as I'm on Aaron's computer without any editing software. Here are my 9 photos. Some I really like, some are just ok!

M holding her toes!

R looking at my ring.

We had pizza for dinner.

And wet corgis for dessert. . .j/k, I love them though and they thought they should have gotten pizza.

Duncan looks so different wet!

Court had to play with her mom's hair.

We bought soda

3 kinds of soda

Pictures of the day

2009-10-23T07:21:00.001-04:00

Used picasa to increase the shadows. These were just some mums outside of my apartment that I've been meaning to do this with.

Forgot

2009-10-22T18:34:00.000-04:00

to post the original ring on the mum photo. I like the editted so much better. Here they are again for a comparison.

Just ordinary to me

Photo of the day . ..

2009-10-22T18:25:00.000-04:00

for the past few days.

sorry for showcasing my ring so much, but I love it! :)

Wedding thoughts

2009-10-22T17:24:00.000-04:00

So we are hoping to get married May 1, 2010. Right now we are hoping to reserve Grace Church for that day since it is very REASONABLE to have both the ceremony and reception there. AND we could have OUR pastor marry us. Which is EXTREMELY important to us. We love our pastor very much. But I'm not sure what we will do if that falls through. Finding a place within our budget for 250-350 people will be a challenge I'm sure.

Also I'm trying to find bridesmaid dresses for under $50, that are not too short and not revealing. Talk about another challenge. Modesty is very important to me. I know that in the end everything will work out but man I get stressed out so easily. I'm like already freaking out about a lot when I shouldn't be.

Now it is time for me to go though so that I can get together some clothing to wear for our engagement pictures this weekend. Provided I can do some laundry at some point tomorrow *wink wink* Holly?? I just don't feel like doing it at work tomorrow for some reason. Any suggestions of what to wear? I'm thinking an orange sweater with either jeans or a skirt, but it's not necessarily super flattering so I was thinking of bringing another outfit too but I don't know what. Probably another sweater, haha cuz I'm a dork like that :)

Details

2009-10-21T10:50:00.000-04:00

of the underside of a lady bug. . .

cleaning himself. . . both of these are uneditted.

Aaron and I are ENGAGED!!!!!

2009-10-19T22:08:00.000-04:00

Praise God, Aaron asked me to marry him this past Sunday and I said "Yes yes yes, please put the ring on!" Well there is more to it than that but that seems to be everyone's favorite part of the story. :)

I kinda knew something was up because he always gives me details about everything so when he said he did "errands online," I thought "ring???" Then he also asked about 5 times if this past weekend was open for Panama Rocks. But then he tried to trick me by saying he'd email InterVarsity to see if they wanted to go. And then he said why don't we ask Brandon. But anyway so he had me going both ways for a while. But regardless of whether or not it was a total surprise isn't important. IT WAS PERFECT!!!. . . and even better than that I get to marry the love of my life in about 6 months! AMAZINGNESS!!!

Anyway, we went to Panama Rocks in Panama, NY after church this past Sunday and we got there and I was taking pictures (it's what I do) and walking and talking to each other during the walk through the scenery. I was thoroughly enjoying just walking and holding his hand and having him lead me as I was a little bit unsure about it because the wet leaves made things a bit slippery. (Oh, side note: Praise God we got to go because the day before they closed due to 5 inches of snow!!!) But we had fun climbing on the rocks and taking photos and Aaron decided to ask me to climb down one rock that scared me and I was like no no no no no and so on. So I went around the other way and met him. Then we walked on a little farther and he asked to sit down since he was out of breath. (He had been sick and later told me he wouldn't have come if he hadn't been proposing.) Then, he said something to the affect (I don't exactly remember because I heard "lots of loving things, *don't cry don't cry, crap I'm crying*, saw him get on one knee, and open the ring box, with a gorgeous ring inside and asked me to marry him") But he said: Amanda, I love you very much and I always enjoy all of the adventures that we have together, and I know there will be many obstacles but that if we keep loving and serving God He will help us to conquer them. And I know we've been looking at all of these pretty rocks, but I'd like to show you the prettiest one I've found (as he gets on one knee). Will you marry me?" To which I reply "Yes yes yes, please put the ring on. I love you so much." And almost pulled him up off the ground to hug him as we both hugged and laughed and cried and greatness! The people behind us probably thought we were crazy and guess what, they wouldn't be wrong to think that.

We finished walking through the area and had fun taking pictures and hugging and holding hands. Then on the way back we got lost (see that whole adventure thing already kicking in.) But we figured it out and then we went and called our family and friends for about 2 hours to let them know before someone else did.

We are so thrilled and not really very far into planning yet, but it will come. I'm just so happy that I will be able to spend the rest of my life with Aaron, he is my best friend, my comforter, the one God has provided for me, my partner in ministry, my comedic relief (often), personal heater, confidant, and everything else good and great and wonderful. I love him so much. I'm so happy that I will be able to join in his family as well as I love them very much also. And I pray that my family will take him in as a son and love him too.

I would have posted more pictures of us together but when I took them off my camera I did it at Holly's so here are a few pictures of the ring instead. BTW, it's TOTALLY me!

All taken with my point and shoot also! :)

Macro Monday

2009-10-18T18:45:00.003-04:00

WARNING: Not all of these are great photos but I included them for some perspective reasons. The first two aren't very good quality. 1. It is a picture of BEE and yes, my hands were shaking a bit because I was literally 3 inches from the bee. 2. I got more confident as I realized the bee was dying because he had flown himself into the window too many times.

Honest his body isn't disassembled it just looks like it in this picture.

See, I told you it was still together.

Love the lighting behind his wings on this one. At this point I realized he hasn't tried flying at all since I've been sitting here and snapping photos, he's probably near dead :(. Even though I don't like bees, I still felt bad that he died from slamming into the window so much. :( Not that being outside would have been good for him. It snowed on Thursday (when I took this picture).

Last one of the bunch. Thanks for looking at my photos to see other submissions, go here

Sunday Stills: C is for . . .

2009-10-17T22:45:00.000-04:00

Country decor:

Do flies have hair?

2009-10-15T18:56:00.000-04:00

Why yes, yes they do. I found this out today when I took a picture of a fly that kept hanging around on the window. R kept trying to kill him :(. I felt kinda bad. She broke one of his legs off. Anyway here he is before the torture ensued. I'm just thrilled I got it to focus on him and not everything else outside the window.

So I'm posting the original and the edited version. There are only slight changes but I thought I'd make a note of them anyway.

I rotated the original, increased the highlights a lot, the shadows a little, saturated it a bit, and sharpened it a bit and got this.

Please click on the photo to make it larger to be able to see the differences.

Today was Train day

2009-10-14T20:33:00.000-04:00

Today R and I spent the morning building a train track. It was a bit hard because it wouldn't stay together. I had a hard tme getting good photos because R kept breaking it apart by stepping and sitting on it. haha

It was also a little hard because it made me think about my Grandpa who loved trains and Aaron's godfather "Pops" who also loves trains. It was neat and sad at the same time.

Birdhouse

2009-10-13T21:16:00.000-04:00

Here is today's submission for picture of the day.

Color

and sepia

Lunch and Gifts

2009-10-13T20:16:00.000-04:00

for Liz

Liz

Sally

Gift #1 Mug with assorted teas

Gift number 2 beautiful red sweater and tank to go under it!

Mrs. Ellis could open her own store.

2009-10-13T20:02:00.000-04:00

Look at how cute these few scenes are from Liz's family's house. The first picture is of Mrs. Ellis' baby shoes. So cute!

I made them sepia because I liked them better that way.

And then there is the WillowCreek collection. So beautiful. Can't tell if I like the one with flash or without flash better.

Liz feeding baby

2009-10-13T19:50:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from Liz's birthday. We went to visit her for her birthday in Geneva, OH.

These first few pictures are of us forcing Liz to feed Aiden. Well she wanted to, but was nervous so we made her! :) hahaha

She looks like a natural doesn't she???

Burping the baby!

I like the natural photo better :)

Been slacking. . .

2009-10-13T16:06:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been slacking on the photo uploads. Hopefully tonight after work I'll be able to upload some but also be able to clean up my apartment as well, also hopefully I'll be able to watch So You Think You Can Dance. It is like my favorite show ever. I love it so much. But I really need to get my apartment cleaned up so that if I need to move when my lease is up in April I will have all of my apartment cleaned out of all the random junk I have.

Thursday Night at IV

2009-10-12T18:47:00.001-04:00

I've had a few people ask me how my talk went on Thursday night so I thought that I would just share with you what my talk was about and then share a little bit about how it went. On Sunday I was asked to speak for Behrend's InterVarsity's Chapter Fellowship, which I used to attend while in college. I was very excited (and nervous) to speak for IV. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to talk about and didn't really get too much insight until Tuesday when the staff was able to give me a call (I knew he wouldn't be able to call me on Monday.) John told me to talk about some of my experiences in college, to stick away from Bible gymnastics (making them flip through various texts at once), and because I'm an extrovert, I needed to write everything down so that I wasn't thinking out loud once I got there. Which is a good thing to tell me because I totally process things by bouncing them off of others. Anyway, I found out on Tuesday (?) that there had been NO WORSHIP *gasp* so far this year because only Michelle was on worship team. I was so taken aback that I decided to ask Michelle if she'd like help for worship team that Thursday. She agreed and so I also was able to help with worship on Thursday. Praise God, it's so awesome to be able to worship Him in song! Also I had it on my heart to bake cookies, which I did Wednesday night before So You Think You Can Dance.

Anyway on Thursday I got there early hoping to pray over the individual seats in the room but the room was locked (and it turned out being that room wasn't the one we were going to be using anyway that night.) So I just looked over my notes again and again, hoping I wouldn't ramble. When Michelle came, she, Molly and I practiced a little bit before it started. I felt so bad because apparently I'm not as good at hearing music as I thought I am, and I also have a tendency to sing higher than I should and considering it was all guys there that night it probably wasn't best but oh well. Praise God.

After setting up the room, singing two worship songs (How Great is Our God and All in All, if you care to look up lyrics), and passing out cookies, Jarryn prayed for me and then kinda gave me the floor. After introducing myself to those that didn't know me, I began by praying once again that the Lord would speak through me and into their hearts. And the following in italics is what I had brought as my message.

Let's start at the beginning, a very good place to start. I came to college wanting to learn more about God. I always believed there was a God, and thought that I was a Christian, I mean I prayed every once in a while, attempted to read my Bible a few times, and went to church very sporadically. Plus being a Christian is about being a good person right? WRONG! Anyway, I applied to Grove City College, and didn't get in, and cried, but that is ok it wasn't where God wanted me. I also applied to Mercyhurst and got accepted. So off to Erie I went. I remember packing my Bible thinking, "I might need this, don't know when or why but maybe I'll need it." I tried campus ministry but it did nothing for me. It just felt wrong, people fell asleep, the Rev. was a feminist, and it just bothered me for some reason.

In January I was invited to church by a friend of a friend, and after I had been rude to him earlier, I accepted the invitation. I went with him and recall thinking that the Nazarene church was SOOOOOOOOOO weird, and how I didn't really want to come back but yet I was intrigued somehow. I kept coming back until a month later, after I had been seeking God in His Word, I realized I did not know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Sure I believed in God and "knew" Jesus died for the sins of the world. Yet I didn't really understand that Jesus died for MY sins because of nothing I could every do. In fact, He died for my sins despite all of the terrible things I've done wrong. I didn't know that until Feb, 2005 when I went to the altar at that "strange" church and asked Jesus for forgiveness of all of my sins and prayed to accept Jesus into my heart. I now understood that Jesus is the ONLY way to Heaven. And somehow He chose to save me and promise me the gift of eternal life? This was UNFATHOMABLE! I was so excited I had to tell EVERYONE! So I did. . . oops, big mistake. This caused a lot more harm that it did good when I came home to tell my family if they didn't repent and accept Jesus as Lord they were going to Hell. Hmm, not so gentle. Trust me as a new believer I made PLENTY of mistakes.

Well now that you know my salvation story, please open your Bibles to Acts 2:42-47. Now, I asked them at this point to open up their Bibles, and having been in InterVarsity, I knew most people wouldn't have a bible with them so I brought some of my own along to hand out. Also I told them where they could get some bibles if they needed one. I asked for volunteers to read, but no one did so I read this passage of Scripture: " ⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

At this point I asked some questions and allowed time for answers from the students. What do you notice this body of believers devoted themselves to doing? ***Although I allowed time for them to answer, I am just going to type out what I had written down as notes.*** 1. Apostles' teaching. Guess what? We should be studying God's Word. It is important for our chapter to study God's Word in order to survive. Now time for a story. In the spring of 06, I went to Chapter Focus Week in the upper peninsula of Michigan with 11 people I didn't know on an 11 hour drive because they were from Grove City and I was the only one from Mercyhurst to go. One day it was just John and I talking about what the Mercyhurst chapter would look like the next year. He said I would be doing prayer and welcome and follow-up, which made sense to me. It did NOT include me leading Bible study. After all, I thought, "I'm just a baby Christian, I've only been a Christian 1.5 years." Well, in the fall of that year, I ended up leading Bible study as others were unwilling or not lead by the Spirit to do so. Praise God for using me despite my incompetence. But I only say this to encourage you that even if you feel like you may not be able to do something, if the Lord calls you to it He will equip you for that ministry.

2. Fellowship - What is fellowship? Can we have fellowship with unbelievers? Not really, we can spend time with unbelievers and enjoy that time spent together but it's not really fellowship, it's ministry. And ministry can be DRAINING which is why it is so important to commune with the saints/other believers.

Another story. After my sophomore year of college, I felt so alone because I was at home without my InterVarsity friends to support me. I struggled to have my quiet times, and struggled with loving my family as Jesus would love them. But, once every week or two, a good friend named Aaron would call and talk to me about the Scriptures and life in general. It was through his friendship that Christ helped me through that summer.

3. Breaking the Bread - Communion is a church institution and so we won't really talk about that tonight.

4. Prayer - Here is where I will spend the most time because it has been THE most crucial part of my walk with Christ. It is through loving my roommates and lots of prayer that 2 of them came to know Christ (one was already a believer.)

I would like to share the following story to encourage you to be bold about your faith in Christ.

During a spur of the moment prayer meeting, my roommates and I put dinner on hold, thinking it would be like a normal prayer meeting lasting about 15 minutes or so. The Spirit had other plans. One of my roommates was raised religious and had gone to the Catholic church all of her life. Like myself, she thought she was a Christian. She knew many of the answers about Jesus but didn't really know Him. During this prayer meeting, I felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit to ask my roommate to accept Jesus as her Lord ans Savior. I was TERRIFIED! I'd only been a believer for a year! I couldn't lead someone to Christ (obviously this is true because He does the leading, but still I was so afraid.) I looked at my other roommate who had been raised in a Christian home and she was nodding at me. Now remember, we were in a prayer meeting, our eyes shouldn't be open at all. At this point I knew the Spirit was moving and said, "Lord, Here we go." I led my roommate through the sinner's prayer that night. (Admit that she was a sinner, and ask God for forgiveness. Believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. His blood was shed to pay for her sins. And finally Confess with her mouth that Jesus is Lord and choose to follow Him.) What was supposed to be a 15 minute prayer meeting in our minds, ended up lasting a few hours because after we finished praying there was much rejoicing. (Including jumping over couches.)

Now, let me take a moment, and back up to explain how this was also a miracle. For about a year, this roommate and I in particular hadn't had a great relationship, most of which was my fault because I was in a TERRIBLE relationship where I had been hurt more than I could bear. And when I needed my roommates most, after finding out my ex had done something terrible against me, they would hang up when I called them. Finally I ended up breaking up with my ex boyfriend but things were not going well for my roommates and I. So, at one of the IV overnighters, I knew my roommates were pretty much fed up with me, and I didn't even know where I was going to live the next year. I went into the sanctuary, (where I wasn't supposed to be, but knew I needed to be there) and threw myself down on the ground and asked Christ to forgive me for all of my sins that I had committed in that relationship and against my roommates. I came out after that time of prayer with tears in my eyes and went and hugged each of my roommates and personally asked each of them for forgiveness because of how I had treated them. God performed a miracle that day in our lives. We became such great friends that we still visit each other a few times a year.

So please be encouraged that prayer does work.

Now moving on, "They came together with GLAD and SINCERE Hearts. Praising God and He added to their numbers daily those being SAVED!" At this point, I asked some reflection questions. I gave the members a chance to examine their own hearts. "Are you really glad and sincere to come together?" "Are we loving each other so much that unbelievers are wanting what we have?" Take a few moments to pray through these things on your own and I closed in prayer after a few minutes.

After this I broke the group down into groups of 4 and asked them to pray for one 2-3 of each others needs.

It was so awesome to be able to speak at CF. I also had brought some resources with me and one student ended up taking home a Bible and a Bible study guide with him Praise God. Another student also asked to take home a Bible. I was so thankful that God had worked in that way. Also I had a few students thank me afterwards in email for speaking. Praise God that He could use me to reach Behrend's campus.

Macro Monday more flowers

2009-10-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

At work last week, the mom got a beautiful centerpiece from an awards ceremony in which she was a participant. I enjoyed taking photos of the flowers. Although this wasn't my favorite flower, it is my favorite flower when photographed. The photos just came out so well. Hope you enjoy!

shot 1

shot 2

shot 3

Sunday Stills

2009-10-12T07:19:00.000-04:00

This week I just did not have time to do a new photo for the Sunday Stills challenge. So here are two older ones from the first time I used photoshop!

Tomorrow

2009-10-08T22:09:00.000-04:00

I will hopefully post a blog about my talk at IV tonight. I forgot somethings I wanted to say, it was shorter than I would have liked, but over all I think it went well. I felt as if one member in particular was disappointed but I spoke what the Lord gave me. But for now, here's a picture of Moll Moll because I love her :)

Eyes

2009-10-08T22:05:00.001-04:00

are beautiful. . . I am the nanny for 2 little girls and their brother but the little girls have the most beautiful eyes. So here are some not so great pictures of their eyes. If I had photoshop I'd totally make the first pic b/w and have her eyes be blue it'd be amazing!

Roses and Cards

2009-10-07T19:19:00.000-04:00

Today I didn't have a ton of time to do this but here are the photos for today. Part of the reason I didn't have time was because of this card that I made for my secret sister at church.

haha crazy day

2009-10-06T20:23:00.000-04:00

So today was a rather insane day and I didn't really have time to take pictures so I took a few of the new car. They aren't very good though. That's alright I suppose. Here are the only pictures I took all day!

Yep dad got the car detailed. I got it on Saturday. . . and I've already got it dirty! hahahahahaha

Oh btw, it's a 2003 Chevy Malibu.

Pictures of the Day

2009-10-05T18:13:00.000-04:00

Well, I have some better pictures from today but I'm saving them for Macro Monday next week. So these will have to do for today. This first one I'm not sure if I like it enough to try to play around with it. . . . Let me know what you think.

Not sure if I like this one too much either. . . must figure out how to edit it.

As always click on the picture to see it bigger.

And these flowers came from this arrangement which was a centerpiece that the mom got from an awards ceremony that she went to. She won an award. Cool! I had an awful time getting a good photo of the whole arrangement though :(

Please Pray

2009-10-05T14:41:00.000-04:00

Last night Jarryn called me and asked me to speak at Large group for IVCF as their scheduled speaker couldn't make it. I am not sure what to speak about, but I don't want it to be my words but the Lords. I don't want it to e my ideas t the Lord's ideas. So please join me in praying that 1. The Lord will reveal to me the topic to speak on. 2. He would fill me with His Spirit and words on Thursday. 3. For a good turn out Thursday night at IVCF as the average LG size is a whopping 5. 4. And lastly, please be praying that the Spirit be stirring the hearts of those at Behrend's campus that they might receive the Word.

I also don't know what to bring. I'm debating about bringing either my huge (and tasty) choco chip cookies or my zucchini choco chip cookies.

Macro Monday, Raspberries

2009-10-04T22:07:00.000-04:00

I work as a nanny for a family and I love it. One of my favorite things to do with the girls, was to go outside and pick some of these yummy raspberries. Unfortunately their season is pretty much over in Western PA. I just like this photo because of the variations in colors and you can see some of the unripe white berries also.

As always, please provide feedback. I heard about this from my great friend Holly. I hope you don't mind me posting my very amateur photos.

New Idea. . .

2009-10-04T21:10:00.000-04:00

So I know I have my favorite photos, and I'm sure you do to, so I'm going to try to start asking every Sunday for you to vote for your favorite photo of the week. Please give me constructive criticism so that I may get better! Thanks so much! Oh and On Tuesdays I will post the favorite photo of the week. Thanks everyone!

Sunday was full of flowers

2009-10-04T21:08:00.000-04:00

like this one I saw on my way home. I liked the variance in the colors. . .For some reason I'm getting into mums lately. They really are kinda beautiful!. . . Who knew I liked them? I didn't.

And candles. . . I tried to take some candle pictures tonight and this was my favorite. I don't know if I like it too much though. In the background is a picture from my grandparents 50th anniversary party about 9 years ago.

Sunday Stills, Happiness is . . .

2009-10-04T20:44:00.001-04:00

Meg playing ball. She was super excited when I took her outside to play ball because she wanted to inside, but Aaron was sleeping before work. She really is a very wonderful little girl. I love this little ACD.

She was bringing me the ball. . . I love her legs in this picture. BTW, only editing on these photos is rotation. Haven't gotten around to editing them, because I didn't really want to, and the Steelers' game is on, and I'm watching and typing while not really looking. So please be patient with me.

Normal picture of Meggie. Look at how good she is, she just sits there holding the ball while I take her picture.

And the picture below was taken at the same time to make her look crazy on purpose because she is crazy, BUT, she's such a good dog, she just sat there waiting for me to get the ball from her as I took forever! haha

I love this crazy dog!

Thanks for looking at my first Sunday Stills challenge entry.

Saturday Flowers. . .

2009-10-04T20:35:00.000-04:00

This is the original. . . Then I rotated it, and added some shadow, and a soft focus and got this:

And then this one is a bit closer up. . .

And here is another original. . .

and then I rotated it, clicked the "i'm feeling luck" button on Picasa, and used a bw, focus. . . and got this

And another one of this bud. . .

which is unedited. .. probably one of my favorite photos I've ever taken on the new camera.

Friday's Entry: Family Bonding

2009-10-04T20:04:00.002-04:00

We all had gathered on the couch at Holly's to watch her open her birthday gift. And then Aaron and Court decided Holly wasn't allowed to leave so they smooshed her, then Holly called Conner for reinforcements. Eventually she was able to break free.

And then this happened. . .
Aaron started smooshing Court and not letting her get up.

And then this happened. . . He is blessed to have a sister who loves him. I just really like this one for some reason.

2 Weeks Ago

2009-10-03T17:45:00.000-04:00

Holly took me out to take some pictures with her camera. Here is what I came up with after playing with photoshop.

Light as a

2009-10-02T06:19:00.000-04:00

Feather. . . My submission for today's photo of the day, which was actually taken yesterday but this is just in case I don't get to post on today. So you might get two for the price of 1 :)

Series

2009-10-01T20:58:00.000-04:00

This is a series of the goose who thought I had food. . .He starts out way over here on the other side of the pond

And then the pesky seagull gets in the way. . . but look how much farther he's come already.

And he's still coming. . .

And then he climbed up on the shore . . .

Looked straight at me and said, "Where's my food?"

To which I replied, " I has none". . . And he said, "I'm outta here"

Water Fountain Funness!

2009-10-01T20:43:00.000-04:00

So I went to the bank after work today, and I've been planning on taking photos of the water fountains in front of WallyWorld/Wegmans for a while now and decided today was a GORGEOUS day to do so. Here are the first few samplings of what I got. Thanks to Andrew's advice I downloaded Picasa 3. I am rather impressed for it being a free program. It's pretty nifty. Here is my first pic of the water fountain.

And my edited pic

GREAT SUNRISE!!!!

2009-09-30T14:17:00.000-04:00

I took this fantastic photo this morning but it's not quite right. I want to do something with it but no ideas what to do. So for now it will be the picture of the day until I can edit it in some way!!! :)

This is the same cornfield as the Monday post also.

Couldn't decide

2009-09-29T19:33:00.000-04:00

I feel like I say this every time, but today I wasn't really able to get any good pictures, and I am too drained now to go try and find some (plus it's dark). So here are my submissions for today because I couldn't decide which one to use.

Barometer/thermometer

Rubics cube type thing. I can't remember the real name of it. I like it though it's fun!

Finally got the courage

2009-09-28T18:16:00.000-04:00

. . . to pull my huge tank of a car off the road to take some pictures of this cornfield in Girard/Fairview. It's really awesome in person. I will show you some of the less detailed shots and the macro shots I took.

This one is for perspective of the field. It stretched at least that far in the other direction also.

Gives you an idea of how blustery it is today! :) I love it though :)

Macro shot #1

Macro Shot #2

Macro shot #3 of the silk on the corn. Looks really appetizing doesn't it? :-P

Ah, I thrive in this weather! :)

Photo of the day for Sunday

2009-09-28T07:02:00.000-04:00

This is not edited yet, hopefully I can do that sometime tonight, but anyway here is the picture of the day of Justin and his baby one!

Birthdays Birthdays Everywhere

2009-09-28T06:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday after church we went to Golden Corral to celebrate the birthdays of this guy:

Who was more excited about that rusty nail than these:

Sally, Justin, Brandon and I also celebrated the birthday of this guy:

With these people!

Yay for birthdays and getting see friends and meeting new people! :)

Feelings mutual

2009-09-27T19:46:00.000-04:00

This is a song from the movie Fireproof. If you haven't seen it yet, it's really awesome. I love it! I've seen it probably 5 times already and really really enjoy it. Anyway this song is called "While I'm Waiting" by John Waller. That's how I'm feeling right now.

"I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait"

I love Aaron very much and would really like to be getting married like a year ago. Not joking. But today's sermon really helped me think about how I should be patiently waiting and serving the Lord. I should also be praying for more specific things. So one of the ways I am applying this is with asking the Lord for patience. This song also reminds me of that. I've decided that while I am waiting on the Lord to allow us to get married that I'm going to be in the Scriptures daily, looking at what it means to be a couple serving the Lord together.

I truly believe that Jesus has put Aaron and I together and that someday we will be doing full time ministry together in one way or another. We've already done a lot of ministry together. One of our close friends said that it was through our witness that said friend came to Christ and was able to grow in Christ. My senior year of college we'd stay up in the end lounge talking about spritual topics. Well, to be honest I usually ended up falling asleep because I'm not very good at staying awake at night, BUT, it was awesome to be able to serve our friend TOGETHER!

I just pray that the Lord will continue to help me to grow in patience as I wait on His timing for marriage. I know I know, never ask for patience. But to be honest that is what I need. James1:5-6 says " ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. ⁶But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind." I am asking God for wisdom and patience as He shows me His will for our lives.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings.

And the same with Saturday

2009-09-27T08:51:00.000-04:00

Considering I got home at 12:30 ish last night I had no time to upload a photo. Again these are unedited and not sure if these are my favorites or not yet until I actually get to play around with the photos sometime.

Mom and I took a walk around the campgrounds and saw this pretty little flower. . . and the one below. That one wasn't little though it was huge. It was such a beautiful rainy day yesterday. To me anyway!

Friday I wasn't able to upload

2009-09-27T08:47:00.000-04:00

a picture. But here is my unedited submission for my photo of the day.

Again

2009-09-24T20:56:00.001-04:00

Not my favorite but I did get a really good one of the six month old today but don't want to post it on here as this is a public blog. Here is my submission for today's photo.

I liked the way you could see the stitching and the light and shadows on the pillow. Hopefully one of these days I'll actually be able to get a better picture. I see all of these places I want to photograph on my way home but with the huge tank I'm currently driving I'd rather not try to pull that over to take some pictures. Tomorrow we will just have to take a walk or two so I can take some pictures.

FANTASTIC

2009-09-23T20:01:00.000-04:00

. . . tap dancer. Love this guy's tapping skills. He amazes me. This is the same audition he did for Season 6 of So You Think You Can Dance. He made it straight through to Las Vegas which is the next round of cuts. I hope Ryan Kasperzak makes it to the top 20 this year or I'll probably cry.

It makes me miss dance alot. Some day I hope to have money and then maybe I could dance again. We'll see. I was never really that good to begin.

Not thrilled

2009-09-23T19:55:00.000-04:00

Couldn't really get any great photos tonight :(. Here is my submission for my own photo a day requirement. Lunch today for miss independent was peanut butter and a triple fruit jelly (apricot, peach and mango.)

Fruits and Wegtables

2009-09-22T19:30:00.000-04:00

Here are some of the shots that I took today while the girls were sleeping. As always let me know what you think. Not sure how I feel about some of them.

Red and Green pepper

Green pepper by itself

A cool fruit called an Asian pear apparently. It tasted good when I had some of Rachel's yesterday.

Apple. I think this one might be my favorite.

So let me know what you think. I couldn't find a spot that I would like to really take the photos so I put a white piece of paper down on the table for my backdrop.

Picture a day

2009-09-22T13:19:00.002-04:00

So as I was at work today and feeding the girls, I saw the vegetables and fruit on the counter and thought they might make a good photo, so I took some photos that I will upload later and hopefully see a decent photo out of the bunch. I've also decided to try to force myself to do a photo a day so that hopefully I can start to get a little bit better at using my camera on not automatic settings. Holly has inspired me to try it out. Hopefully this will go well. the end.

Pops and Mert visit

2009-09-18T06:43:00.000-04:00

On Sunday after church, Aaron and I went to visit his Godfather and his wife. After this point, I proceeded to get sick for two days but that's another story.

This is Mert, Aaron, Pops and their dog Molly.

They love each other very much! Pops reminds me of my pap so much it's not even funny. He loves his trains, he's always smiling, he treats his dog like pap treated ours, they have similar glasses, and when pap was younger he had that hairstyle, and they both got in trouble growing up in the Catholic Schools.

Pops loves this little dog so much. She even gets to go to Wendys sometimes, and if you said the word she knows what you mean! Also in this picture I'm nearly certain the farm in the background is the farm that Dwayne's father used to own.

And then Aaron decided to torture Duncan. Check out the name tag on the poor dog.

Christmas

2009-09-17T14:30:00.002-04:00

is honestly right around the corner and I'm trying to think of gifts for family members.

I was thinking that for the women on my mom's side of the family I could make additional copies of the my great grandma's recipe book. What do you think? I was going to do it for my grandma anyway but would it be ok to do that for the rest of the family? Perhaps I would scrapbook every few pages or something. I dunno. Just an idea.

I have probably between 1 and 2 hours of free time every day at work when the kiddos are sleeping so that's nice. I could work on things then. Any ideas to offer up for gift ideas. Hopefully inexpensive as I can't really afford to buy many gits this year. Thanks!

Back to work

2009-09-17T06:42:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I went back to work after having taken two days off because I was rather sick. I think I was awake for maybe a total of 7 hours on Monday. Aaron and his mom pretty much told me I wasn't allowed to go to work on Monday and by Monday night I wasn't feeling much better so I called off on Tuesday. All night Monday night I had a fitful sleep as I kept getting too hot (probably from a fever.) And woke up around 10 on Tuesday feeling mostly better, but after a few hours of being awake I was exhausted again and went back to sleep for a while in the afternoon.

Yesterday I was back up to speed and ready to go chasing after a 2 year old and caring for the 5 month old. And I'll be back there again today and tomorrow. Yayz for a wonderful job that I very much enjoy. Yay for the beautifulness of fall. Yay to being able to play outside. I think we will go outside a bit today because I love fall and I hope to play outside a little more often so we get some more exercise together. :)

Have a great day everyone and hopefully tonight or tomorrow I can upload some pictures from Sunday with Aaron's godfather and maybe some of the fall time from today. We'll see!

Pictures from Holly's camera

2009-09-15T20:42:00.003-04:00

While at the barn this last weekend Holly made me use her camera that I was afraid of. I started off trying to take pictures of this kitty. I failed very often because Kitty loved to me to pet him/her. Everytime I would stoop down to take the picture he/she would come to me.
Probably my favorite of the bunch. I just love this picture. Not sure how I captured it but I like the way the flag has sunlight on it. I like the shadow of the wreath. And I like how the flag in the bottom left is what is in focus.
This stripy kitty is so cute! I love him. Holly was able to get him to look over his shoulder like this for me because she was distracting him with hay.
Love the look on stripy's face when Hammy (black one) was attacking him.
I love this one, they would go from loving each other to fighting within seconds.
I like how Hammy is hugging his brother but don't like how brother is out of focus.
Kitties, Holly and Court had distracted them by waving some hay in front of their faces. I like how both kitties are in focus but the background is out of focus.
Moss of the roof of the barn. I like the contrast of colors, wish I could have taken a better picture though.

Campfire stories

2009-09-13T09:32:00.005-04:00

Yesterday was a great day. Aaron called into work and found out that he had to go to work for an undetermined amount of time for his first real day on the job. While Aaron was at work I got to hang out with his mom and Courtney. We had a great day together we made some lunch together (well they made it and I washed up the dishes.) Then we looked at scrapbooking websites and some AMAZING photos that some of Holly's friends have put up on Blogger. I'm just amazed with some people's photography skills. They are always able to take the most excellent pictures. Then Holly, Court and I went to the barn. Holly has made it her goal to make me not afraid of her uberduper super spancy scary camera. It has a lens longer than my arm (ok not really but you get the idea.) I took the camera around while they fed the horses at the barn and I was getting more comfortable using it finally although I'm still a bit afraid of breaking it. I hope some of the pictures that I took turned out well. Then when it was time for Court to ride Mojo, I went to pick up Aaron and head off to hang out with my family. Being inspired by all of the wonderful artwork, here are some pictures that I was able to take on my camera that day. Let me know what you think. If you would like to see all of the pictures from this weekend I am going to attempt to put them up on Facebook soon.

Me playing around taking pictures of my eye because I thought it looked really cool that day.
Can't tell if I like the top or bottom picture better. It is the same barbed wire wreath at the barn, just taken standing in two different places.
I'm a big kittah, honest.

Dad being extra gentle with Peaches, she was hurting very badly and is going to the vet on Tuesday.
He's so handsome!
Like the look of the fire in this one. . .
but the bubbliness of the wood in this one.
Aaron and Brandon, fireside.

Aaron and ConBeast

2009-06-30T22:32:00.004-04:00

Conner is my buddy and he likes to wake Aaron up for me. In these pictures Conner wasn't cooperating to make it look like they were snuggling.

Cutest.picture.ever!

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Whitten

2009-06-30T14:11:00.007-04:00

This past weekend I went to my friend Dana's Wedding. She was one of my closest friends in high school. We traveled to Ann Arbor Michigan to witness this special day and I am so thankful that I went.
Outside the church they had a rock painted with the date, time and couples' names.

Dana and her daddy walking down the aisle. She's so cute!

Only picture I have of the whole bridal party :(

Andy's vows

Dana's vows

Rings!

Unity candle :) They poured their candle during the ceremony. It was neat!

pouring the candle!

First kiss

Yes you are seeing candy sprinkles being thrown at them!

First dance!

saying goodbye :(

Baby Fever

2009-03-01T19:33:00.002-05:00

I have baby fever/wedding fever. In the past few weeks:
1. I found out one of my best friends Sally is pregnant.
2. My friend Dana is getting married this June.
3. My friend Nikki from high school is very pregnant and due soonish.
4. Rein and Alexa had baby Xander on Monday.
5. John and Michelle had baby Emma on Wednesday.

So now I'm wishing I was getting married and having babies and such (in that order of course). But I need to be content with where God has me right now and right now I'm apparently not meant to be married. So I will wait, although it is getting harder to wait with all of the weddings and births and things!

Outraged

2008-12-02T22:18:00.002-05:00

So I'm trying to do my work but something one of my friends posted on facebook has me outraged as well. Did you know that there is actually a website that PROMOTES AFFAIRS!!!!!!! >:-O. Um I'm sorry but I think that relationships are hard enough without someone being encouraged to have an affair. This is wrong on so many different levels. I know what it feels like to be hurt in a dating relationship when someone is unfaithful. It took me over a year to recover from that and sometimes I still feel so hurt by that. It totally destroyed my image of myself for a long time. Anyway, Here is what my friend had to say about it:

"I am beyond infuriated right now!!

I am watching CNN - trying to check up on the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India (and if you don't know what's going on .... turn on your tv or open your computer). Anyway, they show this commercial around 11:04 pm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TV68DKZ3WA

I cannot even describe to you the rage I feel in my body at this moment. How disgusting and horrible is this?! And there's a company that exists to provide people with it?! Oh my word. I cannot believe they are airing this on television. Apparently they aired it on ESPN but it was pulled.

I am irate. How in the world?! WHY?! Why? Why?! I know the world's messed up, but wow .... this is over the top. "life is short. have an affair" - what a mockery of marriage and people and God and yourself?! I cannot believe this.

Why don't they show another commercial afterward - one about the family or wife or husband that's been destroyed. Yeah ... that's entertaining.

And why must they portray the wife the way they do?! What's that about?!!! What does that say about women!?!? What does it portray about men!? Oh my gosh ... this commercial is horrid on so many levels.

I am saddened beyond belief. "

AANYWAY Completely in disbelief that this would be allowed in our country! And we wonder why the divorce rate is so high. Maybe if people actually cared about one another things would be different :(

More than skin deep

2008-12-02T20:08:00.003-05:00

On Friday we are having an overnighter. For those of you who don't know what that is in InterVarsity it is basically a chance to hang out and get to know each other better. We play games, have relay races, eat nummy food (this year we are making some very nummy things), this year we are offering a prayer time, there's always an ice breaker as well as some dodgeball (for the boys).

This year, since we all know each other pretty well on the surface, I'm looking for more meaningful, get to know you better type questions. I have three so far but I am drawing a blank and I'm not sure how to google it. I'm wondering if any of you could think of some good "deeper" getting to know you types of questions. If you do please post them!! Thanks :)

It's About Time

2008-11-21T23:21:00.012-05:00

We made it on time this year!!! Btw these are from October and refer to my last two posts to understand better what Harvest is!

Same sign every year but it changes with the theme. This year's theme was Playing for Keeps: Going all in for God
Jon was clothespinned by Aaron, a tradition in our chapter started by the Grove City chapter which I spread to our chapter!
Main building - side entrance some of the seminars and our chapter prayer were in this building.
Main Building close up

Heart shaped leavesclose up

It took me three years to find this but I love it :) 1 Corinthians 13:13

and
But the greatest of these is Love.
I thought this would turn out better. It's on top of the sanctuary
Yay handsome prince and good friend DP
Moll Moll and Kiesel
Decorations :)
crazy photo
air hockey is popular at Harvest in the game room

And apparently so is Nintendo Monopoly. . .a bird's eye view
A few properties were missing and Pat knew how much each of them was worth from memory. That's SICK!
just another shot
moneys
my friend Amber that goes to Clarion, she is from the Pittsburgh area though :) She went to high school with a cousin of mine, small world huh?
more cuteness

God of Justice

2008-10-28T20:45:00.002-04:00

At Harvest this weekend we sang this song. I've had it stuck in my head a lot lately. I think that someday Aaron and I might be missionaries. I love the lyrics because it actually talks about putting feet on the Christian Faith.

God Of Justice - Click here for more blooper videos

If you want the lyrics click here

Harvest . .

2008-10-26T23:13:00.004-04:00

Is the fall conference put on by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (well the Western PA Northern WV part of it). That was this past weekend at the Pittsburgh Project in Pittsburgh. It was different returning to the conference as an alum this year and not as a student. It wasn't quite what I was expecting.

The theme this year was: Playing For Keeps: Going All In With God. It was very neat because they had a poker theme going on all weekend with some dramatizations and such. The decorations were Playing Cards and Poker Chips, and our name tags were cards also. I picked the 8 of hearts because it's my favorite. I don't know why.

Also, I realized this weekend through some of the seminars and through our speaker on Saturday night some of the things I've been holding back from God. I also realized some of the ways that I've hindered the chapter that I was a part of. I never really helped to prepare anyone to be the leader after I left. As a result the Mercyhurst Chapter is nearly non-existant. It makes me thoroughly saddened. Also, I feel like I've not only let God down I let my chapter down in that regard. Also at PSB, during InterVarsity CF (our large event on Thursdays), I usually kinda welcomed everyone and ran up and gave the frequenters hugs and ran to talk to the new people to try to make them feel welcome. I feel like that is also missing this year. Please be praying that God would reveal to me how to minister to IV and also that He would raise up leaders at PSB and Mercyhurst. There are some other things too but those are for another day and another blog.

The worship (singing songs to God) was AMAZING!!! We had multicultural worship which I LOVE! I love learning to praise God in other languages because there is a passage in Revelation that tells us that in Heaven we will be hearing songs in all languages. So it's nice to have that little piece of Heaven here on Earth. We sang one song in Haitian Creole called "Il Ma Sauve" it means "He Saved Me." I LOVE THIS SONG. If you'd ever like to listen to it let me know because I have it. It's so fantastic. It's a great song to dance to and so Molly and I were in the back when we were singing it the first time and we were dancing on the chairs in the back. It was so much fun. I'm always excited when praising God through dance is encouraged. We also sang a song I can't remember the name of it but here's part of how it goes:
Take our hands
move our feet
break our hearts
with the things that make
your heart break
(repeat)
let us be Your hands
let us be Your feet
Let us be the love that longs for those in need
(repeat)
Spirit move
across the land
we invite you
to move on earth by your sovreign hand
(repeat)
(Repeat Chorus)

I love this song. During the prayer labyrinth they had set up, they had things that we could pray about to Go all in for the Kingdom of God. One station was on justice. I wanted to cry looking at the pictures they had set up. One of them had a little naked baby of African descent, curled into a ball starving in the streets. Whenever we were singing the above song, all I could think of was this picture of this little baby. I pray that God would use me in a great way. I don't know what He wants for the rest of my life but I will continue to follow Him and his leading me.

I also had a great time spending time with those that came from PSB. We at one point were playing wheel of fortune and then decided to have a photoshoot which was lots of fun. I'll try to get DEG to post some pictures that we took during our photoshoot. We also had some pizza that day from Mandy's Pizza. It was fantastic!

I hope to post some pictures tomorrow. For now it is getting quite late and I should probably actually go to sleep.

Lately. . .

2008-10-20T21:54:00.005-04:00

I have been missing this girl, Robin.
This was us carrying up her bags after I picked her up from the Cleveland airport my junior year of college when she came to visit us after Christmas because she was still on break! :)

She was one of my best friends in College. She's also one of the big reasons I am a Christian today. God definitely blessed me by bringing her all the way from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Erie, PA where she learned what snow was my freshman year of college. We were only together for our freshman year but oh my goodness whenever we get back together it's as if nothing has changed. We still laugh at the same jokes, she still is obsessed with Coke, she still has her uberlong hair and craftiness. She is the kind of friend you will have for a whole lifetime.

Here is a picture of the 5 of us that made up SLAMR my freshman year, Sally, Liz, Amanda, Meg, and Robin.
Oh the college life that I sometimes miss way too much. I miss my roommates a lot. But I am so blessed to have even known them at all. Also I'm so grateful that through Robin and Sally all 5 of us came to know the Jesus of the Bible. Coincidence that we were all roommates my freshman year? I think not. I know that God has a plan for my life and my freshman year of college that definitly included having Robin as my suitemate to goof off with, to joke around with, to watch movies with, cause a ruckus with, hang things on the ceiling with, jump off of beds with, and most importantly, study the Bible with. She was such a wonderful friend and always will be. If only we could get her to move closer to PA. *Sigh*

Tagged by Holly

2008-10-19T20:36:00.002-04:00

So I was tagged by Holly sometime last week to list 6 quirks about me. I'm not sure how I'm going to list only 6 but that's ok. I shall try. I guess the deal is I will also tag 6 of you so beware readers of the blog your turn is coming. I also don't have 6 people to tag so I'm only tagging 5. HAHAHAHAHAHA CUZ I STINK LIKE THAT!

Quirk 1 - I LOVE HUGS!!! I will hug very very often. I'm a very snuggly person by nature. It's very strange though because the rest of my family is like anti-touch. I think also the fact that I'm psuedo-cold blooded makes me an instant snuggler because I need the extra body heat.

Quirk 2 - I love to take photos. I've also experienced the camera becoming a part of my body although less so lately because school has taken over my life but I will always have my camera around for special occasions.

Quirk 3 - I have a hard time cooking for myself when I eat at most one meal a day at my apartment. It makes it very difficult for me to force myself to cook. As a result I throw out some of my food because I can't use it fast enough.

Quirk 4 - This is a strange one for sure. I'm very weary to try new things except when I am in situations where I have no choice. For example when Aaron and I went to Toronto with his roommate Andrew from Singapore I tried things I would never eat under normal circumstances. Let me put this into context for you: I didn't try GRILLED CHEESE until college, or any vegetables other than corn and potatoes (which most people say don't count). Anyway in Toronto I tried: Lobster, Squid Soup (I didn't find out until a week later), the nastiest thing I've ever eaten in my life: A CHINESE MUSHROOM, it literally made me gag . . . a lot, Fish with the bones still in it looking back at you, and a variety of weird looking fruits including: lychee and rambutan

Quirk 5 - I love football when I get to watch it. I would love to be able to watch a football game on Sundays with Aaron curled up on the couch. Too bad he doesn't like football. I spent a lot of time at high school football games growing up and mom didn't let me walk around during the games until at least high school because she didn't want me to get into trouble. So I learned a lot of the ins and outs of the game. I learned to love it a lot. She learned to like it from my grandpa because he drove her around to all of the football games when she was a majorette.

Quirk 6 - I love to sing. I feel like I'm not very good at it but I am constantly singing. For example I've had the song "Tears of the Saints" by Leeland stuck in my head all day long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rC4tI3k_0w&feature=related
I constantly have a song in my head. . . all the time. Like when I'm reading my Bible, often I start singing a song inspired by the words I'm reading in the passage. I also will often hear someone say somethign and think of a song as well.

So those are my 6 quirks. I hope that you guys learned at least one new thing about me based on this. There are certainly more but that'll do for now.

So here are the 5 tagged people:

1. Sky - My ex-future Wife (don't worry it's just a joke.) I love Sky a lot she's such a cool person and I'm so happy I've gotten to know her.

2. Andrew - "Deg" Andrew has become a great friend over the past few years due to our friendship through InterVarsity.

3. Moll Moll - such a sweetheart I love her so very much.

4. Matt - Someone I just got to know recently but look forward to getting to know better.

5. Kim - My cousin who I've always enjoyed spending time with.

Gorge Hike

2008-10-13T09:45:00.006-04:00

We went for a hike in the gorge. Im not very good at hiking though.

The roots often remind me of little steps.
dark but for some reason i like it.
looking out at the gorge

so beautiful. Too bad it was too bright :(
framing (sorta)
Aaron took this one.
one of the many waterfalls
contemplating how to get across dry
I love sepia!
court was watching aaron at work

crossing the little bridge
tiny waterfall that we were trying to cross in above photos.

Another little waterfall. It didn't turn out quite the way i wanted it to
gorgeous view as we emerged out of the woods.

just for perspective
i wished this would have turned out better they were so vibrant

Holly's Birthday

2008-10-13T09:36:00.003-04:00

While waiting for everyone to get there I took a picture of the Peanut Bucket!

There's the Birthday Girl and daughter checking out our reflections in the light bulb! I love these two!

So happy together!. . . until the hair started to tickle Court!

Walk at Liz's

2008-10-13T09:14:00.003-04:00

At Liz's we took a nice walk and the leaves were just amazing. Here are some of the results!

Annie's Photoshoot!

2008-10-13T08:58:00.003-04:00

This is Annie. She's Liz's beautiful dog. She was a great subject for photos!

I couldn't decide if I liked this one or the next one better.

stupid but perseverant fishie

2008-10-07T19:18:00.002-04:00

I forgot to post this last week but Goldilocks decided she didn't like the container she was in and flopped out onto the floor I came home later one night (probably like 11 ish) and picked her up with a paper towel and decided for the heck of it to put her back in her bowl and see if she was ok. Here we are a week later and a little less tail and she's swimming around. Stupid fishie! At least she survived. Anyway yeah she's a brat she dislikes me muchly like any time I come near the bowl she's like, nope swimming away now. And she won't eat if I'm anywhere near the bowl which can sometimes be a problem. goofy fishie. I wish I could have a real pet in a way but I'd really rather not have to take care of it right now and I'm not home often enough to take care of it well. :( I wish I was. Hopefully by this time next year I'll be a lot more experienced and able to have a pet (which will take convincing my landlord of course.)

Anyway yeah this week has also been rough in school. One student was suspended. Last week he was having very bad rages and Thursday I left crying because he literally flipped my room upside down. I was so afraid he was going to hurt himself. I didn't care if he hurt me I just didn't want him to hurt himself. He was such a sweet kid when we started school. I'm not sure what has happeend. He doesn't care about consequences anymore. He actually tells me he wants to be suspended and things. Well he got his wish yesterday he was suspended because he kicked another student. The suspension came as a result of a lot of things he had done in the past two weeks. It's just very sad because he's only 8 years old. I just don't understand how these kinds of things happen to kids so young.

Update on Mr. Rebellious: He's been so rude to all of the students in the class lately ie. calling their moms names, pushing them in the halls, literally tripping over them; cheating in dodgeball (and he's a big kid); not doing his work and the like. He is no longer allowed in my class until his behavior changes. He gets off the bus and goes straight to the office, and then we take his work, breakfast and lunch in to him. He's not allowed to leave the office except to go to the bathroom. I'm not sure when he'll be allowed back in the classroom. I don't know what to do with him because nothing seems to be working. I mean this morning he snuck past the people walking the kids to the classes and was in my classroom and almost got decked by another student because he was calling said student's mom names again. MR. REBELLIOUS WAS IN THE OFFICE ALL DAY YESTERDAY BECAUSE OF SUCH BEHAVIOR!!! It's just so frustrating that I don't know what to do for him. He also has a tendency to lie . . . A Lot! I've caught him in so many lies it's unreal for a 6 year old. He never thinks anything is his fault. He also thinks his nanna is the authority at school and has the ability to tell me what he's allowed and not allowed to do. Blah! Sorry I'm ranting. I just wish I could somehow reach this kid because he's so intelligent but chooses to act poorly all the time!

On the up side: Sunday is Friend's Day at church and I get to see Aaron's Mom Holly for Friends day and her birthday! AWESOME! I love her so very much! I also get to see Courtney, Aaron's sister which is awesome because I love Courtney as well. The only one missing will be Sarah. (you will be missed Sarah). I'm excited for this weekend. And I'm kinda excited to NOT have a wedding this weekend. But having so many weddings right in a row does NOT make it easier for me to wait to get married.

Mark and Brenda's Wedding

2008-10-06T22:05:00.006-04:00

So yes, Aaron and I have gone to a lot of weddings lately, as a matter of fact it's been 4 in the matter of four months. One a month for four months. Anyway, Mark was a great friend of mine in college. He was literally like the big brother I never had. We joked around all the time and I could really trust him to confide in him. When we were in school together he was a few years older than me and he was praying that God would give him patience to wait for the one person God had picked for him. Then about a year ago Mark and Brenda got engaged. I was so excited. Then on Saturday they invited Aaron and I to spend their special day with them. What a blessing! I love Mark so much and Brenda seems like such a sweetheart! I hope God really blesses their marriage.

Wedding ceremony-ness. I couldn't get very good pictures because I had a lot of people in front of me.

Brenda's dad officiating.

Cute :)

my appetizers. . . i know, like you care right?

First dance as a married couple.

pretty cake!

look at the layers of chocolatey ness

I'm a bit obsessed with Calla Lillies like seriously my favorite flower ever! SO PRETTY! Even when made out of icing!

It sparkles

Brenda was laughing because she just gipped her friends out of taking a picture of them kissing.

Cutting the cake

Father Daughter Dance, I loved her dress btw, well the top not so much the bottom!

Father Daughter Dance

Mother and son again!

This was only about the fourth time I tried to take his picture and he still didn't pose nicely.

Much better!

Andrew and Scott, old buddies reunite!

Why do I always look about 12 years old?

Jon and Kristen's Wedding

2008-09-28T21:18:00.007-04:00

A Weekend in Pittsburgh. . . ok well just Saturday!

We stopped in Center to have lunch with my mommy at Eat N Park!
This is Ashely and Brad the other two passengers of my car!

mom asked me not to take this picture. . . as you can tell I'm a great listener!

I love this picture of Aaron. I just didn't get me in it really!

Yay better!
So Aaron had made a bowtie for Brad to wear because he felt Brad was a little underdressed and so Brad made a necktie for Aaron. . .out of STRAW WRAPPERS!
At the wedding of one Kristen Healey and one Jonathan Parise. . . .and the two shall become one
she made such a beautiful bride!
pronouncing them husband and wife!
Having fun waiting for the bride and groom and come out!
cropped from the above photo. . . I just really liked the expression on Ashley's face.
Aaron's turn!
BOYS! They always have to be agressive. . .even when blowing bubbles apparently!
Bradley took this one and the next one because I'm too short.
blurry but I like it :)
I thought this was going to be a precious photo until I took it and realized the light was in the wrong spot :(
better lighting but lost some of the magic. This is our staff worker for InterVarsity John Wagner and his daughter Hannah! She's so freaking cute! I love her!
I was a little obsessed with this lamp.
IT'S AMAZING!
Ashley and I wore the same type of shoes yay!
Impromptu Brad and Ashley photoshoot. . .I just liked the way they were looking at each other!

Cutting the cake! It was so yummy. I had it for breakfast this morning. It was just a white cake but it had an orange creamy layer. . . AMAZING!
cutting the cake again
first dance! You can see the band in the background. I found out though that I don't really like live bands. I'd rather have a DJ.

first dance. . .

I wanted to take more pictures but my batteries died :(

Shouldn't be posting but I will anyway

2008-09-25T16:21:00.003-04:00

I should be doing my work but I forgot to post these. . . I think. . . they are just some youtube videos I like. Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLyDOa40ueE
^ Shine On - NeedToBreathe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv8XMUtan54
^SYTYCD Katee and Josh HipHop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApTVMP9Ws2o
^SYTYCD Katee and Josh All By Myself

So yeah I could post more but that's enough for now! :)

Coloring and Cutting

2008-09-22T21:24:00.001-04:00

So I should hire someone to help me full time with the mundane things of my job that take forever. . . coloring and cutting out things, writing out the spelling words on flashcards, making flashcards. I now understand why teachers laminate everything and keep them forever. . . because it takes forever to make everything!!! Seriously it takes forever. I can't imagine a job where you do more work at home than you do while you are working. Teachers do really put in like 12-18 hour days sometimes. . . . Craziness. . .anyway back to the coloring and cutting!!!

Wishing. . .

2008-09-22T00:02:00.001-04:00

Oh my gosh how I am wishing I had a smartboard in my classroom. I just created two presentations for the smartboard and wow that was crazy until I figured out how to use it but oh my gosh could it so be worth it if you had it in your room. I mean they aren't fantastic by any means (my presentations) but the kids will like being able to pull the notes in to read them and such. AWESOME!

Quick update

2008-09-16T20:40:00.000-04:00

So today I found out that I won't have first grade for language arts (reading, writing, grammar, that kinda stuff) anymore. Praise God! This should help a ton. I'm hoping so anyway because Mr. Rebellious is a first grader. Also it'll give me more time to spend with the other two grades while they are gone and then I can more easily work with them on their math when they get back. I'm thrilled with this because I should be a little bit freer (haha hopefully). Anyway yeah Mr. Rebellious has OSS now because he slapped another student today. So yeah. Interesting stuff. Anyone wanna work on correcting some papers for me??? Or lesson planning??? or creating centers??? pretty please???. . . btw, why do I have to be so dang ambious???

So today he spat in my face. . .

2008-09-15T18:19:00.002-04:00

Today I was trying to be nice to mr rebelious. He was not very nice today though. I've been trying everything I can think of with this kid. I tried telling him I'd give him an hour of Wii time at the beginning of the morning, if we put check marks up on our board he would lose 10 min/checkmark. I thought this would work. No, he just would erase his checkmarks. Also, when I was trying to help him on his math test since he missed every single problem the first time through because he wasn't paying attention when I went over it, he spat in my face 3x. Needless to say I wrote him up for it. And another student was trying to help him so much today and the day ended with said student in tears becuase Mr. Rebelious kept pushing books at him. I don't know what to do with Mr. Rebellious, nothing I've tried is working. He seriously makes me want to cry very often. If it weren't for my faith I don't know where I'd be right now. I'm hoping that something changes in his attitude. Anyway back to work. The reason I don't write very much now is because I do at least 55 lesson plans a week! Yay planning! Have a good night all.

and then there were 2

2008-09-13T23:14:00.002-04:00

. . . My white and orange fishie died today before we even had a chance to name him. but on that note, the other two now have names. The all gold/orange one Aaron named Goldilocks. I named the orange and black tipped one Rocky because he is very active like all the time. Today I had to clean out their bowl already. I'm not sure what that was about but yeah. I'm also hoping to put them back in their bowl tomorrow since they are in a very small container currently and can't be very happy. That's ok though at least there aren't hundreds of them in the small container like in walmart. Um yeah, more posts to come later.

I have three roommates. . .

2008-09-11T20:33:00.003-04:00

. . . but they don't have names yet!

Here is one hiding from the camera, he must be shy.

This guy has some black on him.
ALL THREE ROOMMATES!!!
They must be too shocked. . . They won't eat yet. Probably a rough trip for them. I hope they make it for at least a few days. . . :)

I'm hoping Aaron and I can name them tomorrow. The little black tipped one is the most active right now. I also have a tendency to call them boys. Why is this? I don't know. . . anyway I like the look of the little white and orange one :) YAY roommates!

Help please???

2008-09-10T21:20:00.005-04:00

What's wrong in these pictures. . . I couldn't figure out how to take them. . . but I loved the look of my gumball machine with the Kissables in it.

No Roommates yet.. .

2008-09-10T20:24:00.002-04:00

Hopefully soon I will have some little guys (or gals) to fill up this thing! Walmart is getting all rearranged so I didn't get to get any tonight. But I decided I could get the bowl anyway because then I could let the water sit out and have all the fun chemicals evaporate before I introduce little fishies to the water!

I was just having fun taking pictures cuz I don't get to do it much any more! So yeah. . . these are just in the kitchen!

Stomache problems and loneliness

2008-09-09T21:47:00.001-04:00

So the past few days I've been having some stomach issues which is fine because at least they've been after school, but they are still a little annoying. Ok so I admit it. . . a lot annoying. Also I've been experiencing loneliness. I think honestly I'd be even a little more content if I just had a goldfish or something. Do you think it's something I should ask my landlord about? I know I can't have a cat or dog or anything but what about at fish? I think it should be fine. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Courtney's Birthday. . . and Aaron's??

2008-09-07T21:24:00.004-04:00

You go right ahead and tear into that present. . . I promise not to get in your way!

I finally caught it on camera. She was doing this for a while!
Love the lamp. . . I should have turned off the flash for this picture though :(
I like this one of Sam watching over Aaron.
I promise I didn't force them to do this. They just did it naturally!