Sweet Life in the City

I'm back! Well, for this week. I have missed blogging but we came home one afternoon and our neighbor had cut off his internet service, therefore cutting our internet connection. I was reading back over my last post and I can hear the discouragement in my words. Thankfully, I made it through those last few weeks of projects, classes, and finishing up the end of the school year. I finished strong in both of my classes and made A's in both of them. I got everything done in my classroom and school and sent off my precious 2nd graders into the next step in their life. It was a wild school year. I had some pretty rowdy boys (nine of them to be exact) that kept me on my toes this year. I was thinking the other day about my 2nd graders and I know that I would not of picked the students that were given to me, but I am so thankful that the Lord knew who needed to be in my life this year. I had some kids that came from very sad situations (yes, even in a Christian school) and I learned s...

"And miles to go before I sleep.  And miles to go before I sleep" Robert Frost Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening Do you ever have one of those days or weeks? Today the line from Robert Frost's poem has been running through my head. Monday was a crazy day with all the bad weather. Tuesday Samuel's little earache turned into a full-blown "Mom, my ear is REALLY hurting". He complained at school so I knew it was infected. Samuel is not a complainer and the fear of having to leave school would keep him from complaining to his teacher about his ear hurting. Well I had class Tuesday night and I was not sure when we could get him to a doctor. They could not get him in at his doctor and the walk-in clinic for him is way across town and the wait would be too long for me to get back in time for class. So, I called up my doctor's office because they have a walk-in place that I have gone to several times. They could get him in. So, I leave work an hour early and...

We had a wonderful weekend! The weather was beautiful on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was spent going through the many boxes and Tupperware containers in our garage. I am planning on having a yard sale  (anyone want to join me :)) in a few weeks and I have to get rid of some things. We are in "get the house back on the market" mode and trust me it is not fun! I emptied about 10 containers of things that I am going to put in the yard sale. They are mostly kids clothes that I can no longer hang on to. I did a lot better than I thought I would do when it came to getting rid of the kid's clothes. After I emptied some containers I brought them inside and filled them up again with things from the house. I also rearranged the kid's bedrooms to make the rooms look bigger. Sam and Emma went on an errand with Jeremy so Chloe "helped" me get the rooms in order. She was so cute. She kept asking me "dat heaby" (that heavy) every time I moved or picked up some ...

April 2nd. The day the world stopped. Well, the day it stopped for me. The day that would divide my entire life Before and After cancer.  I had been having some problems for about a year. I went to the doctor and I was assured that the problems I was experiencing were normal and since I was so young "my body would work itself out".  So I went home and I waited for my body to start working, whatever that meant. Several months went by and the problems continued but I did not go back to the doctor since I was told that I would be alright. In the meantime Jeremy and I moved to Florence, SC for Jeremy to attend school. He was also hired on as the Assistant pastor at a FWB church right outside of Florence. I got a job as a Customer Service rep for Washington Mutual. It was good money but I hated the job. It was very stressful and I started to feel even worse and noticed the problems I was having was only getting worse. I found a doctor in Florence and I really like him. He prescrib...

I am sorry that I have not posted in a week or so. We were in Chicago ( I will share more in a minute) and then this week has been "operation projects" for me. I have 4 weeks of class left and I have several projects that are due. They have been hanging over my head so this week my goal is to get ALL of them done so I can enjoy these last few weeks of school with my 2nd graders. It has been easier than I thought getting back in the swing of things. This week actually just flew by! It is exciting thinking about how close Summer time will be here even though it still feels pretty much like winter. We had some great 70-80 degree weather days last week and then it dropped back down to the 30-40's. Well, as I mentioned we were in Chicago last Friday and Saturday. We left Thursday and headed to my parent's house which is about an hour south of Chicago. My nephews had been there all week so I got to visit with them for a few hours before they headed back to Nashville. We sta...

[caption id="attachment_2477" align="alignnone" width="1024" caption="A common scene in Guatemala"] [/caption] It is hard to believe that it has been a week since I was at the orphanage. We worked a half of day last Thursday. We played with the girls for a few hours and then said our painful good-byes. Meeting those girls and hearing their stories has forever changed my life and I am so thankful for that experience. After we said good-bye we loaded our bus and headed to Antigua. Thursday night and Friday were set aside for us to relax and have some free time. We got to Antigua and got ready for supper. I started to not feel so well. We went to eat and I knew I was getting sick. One of the guys walked me back to our hotel and for the next 12 hours I was sick. I was so sick! About every three hours I found myself in the bathroom vomiting and diarrhea. I was miserable and did not think I would ever feel better again! I got up Friday morning and went...

I really wish I could have blogged during my experience instead of afterwards because I know there will be so much that I will not be sharing. I would like to take this post to talk some about the girls we had the privilege to meet and love on last week. I stated yesterday that there are 31 girls at the orphanage. There are 5-6 girls that are older and in high school. A few of these girls are actually in their late twenties but the school system is so different there that they are still in high school because of the rate they are progressing. There are three little girls who are either 2 or 3 years old and the rest are first grade through 6th grade. The girls are just beautiful and despite their hardships they have a smile on their face and are full of love for others. They really are a family there. The girls take care of all the other girls. While we were there we were able to do crafts with them and play games with them. They love to play basketball and soccer! They love to sing and...