Work

I like my job. It took me a while to get to that point but there are so many wonderful things about it I would be hard pressed to find enough reasons to dislike it. Of course, I have all of the perks of a teacher in terms of time off. I also don't have to worry about grades or TAKS scores. One of my favorite things about my job is that there is a beginning, a middle, and an end. This may not seem like much of anything on the surface, but for me it is huge. I am a planner by nature and the ability to get out my calendar at the beginning of the school year and put in all of the holidays, semester breaks, and most importantly the last day of school makes my day to day job so much more enjoyable.

I start work again in less than a week. I will be in a new district, at two new schools, a new grade level (Jr. High) and of course new co-workers. I have had slight anxiety flare ups but nothing like I could have expected a few years ago. Only by the grace of God am I at a place where I am putting my trust in Him and not in my abilities to get people to like me or being good enough at my job that I don't draw attention to myself. I am praying that my fear of man (Christian counseling speak) will not overwhelm me and that it will be replaced by my fear of the Lord. I learned so much in my past two positions about not finding my satisfaction in my work. What a relief! My happiness does not depend on my job. I am designed to find my satisfaction and my purpose in Christ alone, not in my husband, my (future) children, my job, or my posessions. The joy I do find in these things is designed to bring me back to the Lord as I thank him for blessing me with these wonderful gifts. I praise God that my job does not come easily to me, that I struggle and have to rely on him for strength. My flesh prefers to be self-sufficient, independent, in a word... perfect.

Jeremiah 17

⁵ This is what the LORD says:
"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

⁶ He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

⁷ "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

⁸ He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

Mid Summer Report

It is officially mid-summer. Booooo........ Ok, but the good news is the summer has been awesome. The trip to Vegas was so much fun. I think people had really scared me about Vegas being dirty and gross and I was thankful to not experience that side of the city. Here are a few pictures from the Vegas trip:

Veronica, Cynthia and I waiting to go up the fake Eiffel Tower


Posing while the other people walk by very quickly


Slot Machine Fun- if fun means losing your money


Me- I will drive you to another club only if I get In-N-Out


Heather and I at Red Rocks National Park

Once I got back from Vegas I had less than a week before we left on our cruise. Since I was the main ( and by main I mean only) planner I had a TON of work to do before we got on the airplain. I was kind of stressed out there for a while. I planned our trips to Barcelona, Florence, Mykonos, and Santorini all in one day. I was SO happy with the planning I did and the advice I got on cruisecritic.com. We met some really great people (Gil and Gail and friends) on the message boards there that went on two of our private tours with us. The companies we hired were awesome and we had our own private vans and could go wherever we wanted for however long we wanted for cheaper than the excursions through the ship. Thanks to all of our tour guides: Thanos in Athens, Antonio in Naples, Ishae in Ephesus, Patricia in Pompeii, Vincenzo in Rome, and Katherine at the Vatican. Besides all of the history we experienced the scenery was to die for! The views in Santorini, swimming at the beach in Mykonos, the Midieval mountain villages with amazing views on the French Coast, the sheer cliffs in Positano Italy.... where do I stop really? Ok, well enough talking... here are some of my favorite pictures:

Sitting on the edge of the Acropolis in Athens

In front of the Parthenon in Athens

Overlooking Villafranche in France.

In front of the library in Ancient Ephesus.

Santorini, Greece

At the Colosseum in Rome

Ancient Pomeii outside of Naples

Mykonos, Greece

Swimming in Mykonos

My favorite place on the ship- laying on the hot tile beds in
the Thermal Suite at the spa.

At the top of Giotto's Tower (climbed the 460 steps) overlooking
the Duomo in Florence.

Pics out of order- our plane dumping
fuel to prepare to make an emergency
landing at JFK on the way to Barcelona.

Our first sunset on Brilliance of the Seas.

They are not exactly original.

Our home for 12 nights- room 3142.

Falling into 40 mph winds on the front of the boat.

Playing miniature golf on the ship.

Overlooking Barcelona on top of Castle Montjuc.

In one of the spire's of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

The saddest part of our trip was missing Robby and Brittni since they couldn't get the time off work to join us. I know they are going to have an awesome time on the trip they take with my parents next summer.




We've been back for one week from our cruise and already have another addition to our family... our new dog Zoey! Glenn couldn't wait to get home from the cruise to adopt a retired racing Greyhound. We went to a meet and greet that was hosted by the group Greyhounds Unlimited in Frisco. We met a few dogs but none of them stole our heart until we met a 2 year old girl named High Society. She had only been off the race track for one week but had completed her cat safety testing so we knew she would be good with Douglas. Her racing career was near Brownsville TX, lasted 9 races and her highest finish was a 2nd on her last race. She weighs about 55 lbs and is very tall and still a bit skinny. She is way too perfect! No accidents, we heard her bark for the first time yesterday when something hit our window, sleeps from 10 to 6:30 without a peep, puts up with Douglas' occasionally outburst of rage, sleeps 75% of the day, no chewing, no counter surfing or hiding our stuff (both greyhound things). Her only vice is she whines for while when one of us leaves the house. Enough description... here's Zoey in pictures:

S-U-M-M-E-R

Just thought I would emphasize that it is officially summer for me now. Today is technically my second day of freedom but it feels like I have been on break forever already! Events that have occured so far this summer:

1. Douglas went to the vet for his check-up yesterday. He is 12 lbs 6 oz. I was a little concerned,
but no weight watchers yet according to the Vet.
2. Mom and I went to the Kimbell to the Art and Love in Renaissance Italy exhibit this morning.
Very cool and got us excited to be in Florence in a few weeks.
3. Lunch today at Hot Damn Tamales in Fort Worth. I found it on the web and it was super
yummy! Got 18 tamales to go so I guess I liked it :)
4. Sprouts this afternoon was a success, felt like 20 pounds of vegetables, their yummy red
pepper hummus, my fave Amy's frozen burritos etc. for 40 dollars.

I leave on Friday for Las Vegas to meet up with my UF roomies Cynthia, Heather, and Veronica for our first full reunion since my wedding. We went to San Fran last summer but Veronica couldn't make it. None of us have ever been there before so it should be interesting!

Other Summer Plans:
1. Unpack!
2. Decorate!
3. Finish planning cruise to Meditteranean before we leave June 24th!

I am very thankful for a job that gives me the summers off. I am planning to make the best of it.

Finally

We move into our house tomorrow (or today since it is after midnight). Everything is really about to get here.... new house, Vegas trip, Mediterranean cruise, new job, new dog (hopefully mid July). I am so excited for these new things and experiences to arrive.

Officially Closed

We are home owners now. Feels very grown up and a little scary. A little scary and a lot exciting. We could not feel more blessed with the interest rates so low, the tax credit, and the affordable housing in the Dallas area. I am so excited to move into our house, I loved it ever since I laid eyes on it (on craigslist of course). We are leasing the house back to the owners until May 29th, but they are moving out early so we will be able to move in to the house on May 19th. It is nice because we will have about three weeks to move all of our things before our apartment lease is up June 6th. It is strange to be so close to so much change but waiting and waiting for it to finally arrive.

LIFE UPDATE

Well spring break has come and gone and I am baffled by that it is almost April. We made the decision to go ahead with looking for a house one week before spring break. We started looking at houses during Spring break. We had an offer accepted March 27th. That moved extremely fast for me but I am thrilled with our potential new house. We would be nearly equidistant between my parents and The Village at under 4 miles to each location. I have been bummed since we moved to Dallas because I can't make it out to The Village for events on the week days very often. I want to get involved again in Bible Studies and Recovery on Thursdays and possibly the lay counselors training. I feel blessed beyond belief to have a church like The Village to call home and to believe so fully in their mission. I especially feel that way about the Recovery ministry which Glenn and I have gotten more involved with since we went through the steps ourselves last summer. We are both co-leading small groups for the spring session. It has been so good to have the truths of the program put back in front of me. God has shown me so many more things he has done in my heart that I wasn't even able to see before. It is hard to put into words on here so ask me and I will be happy to tell you more. I think it is such a wonderful tool that the Lord can use to show you the truth of who he is, the depravity of your heart, your rightful place before the Lord, and a new way to relate with others in light of these truths. Here is more info for anyone who is interested: http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/recovery All of that to say I love the Lord and what he is doing at our church which is why I am most excited to be able to live closer to The Village.

So in regards to the house itself I am super excited as well. It is 3 bed 2 bath very open floor plan. Just like Glenn's mom's house which we really like. It is beautiful and I can't wait to move. We will close officially the end of April but will lease it back to the owners until the end of May. Perfect timing as our lease is up on June 7th. I will leave you with a few pictures from the house:


If you want to see more just ask me to send you a link to the blog for the house or better yet you can come visit us sometime this summer!

Frederick

Glenn has a new obsession. He looks up videos on youtube and sends them to me at work. The obsession is greyhound dogs. It all started with a video on youtube of a dog named lemon head that was rescued after her racing days were over. Alas, it did not end there. While Glenn thinks greyhounds are the most lovely dog ever to walk the face of the earth I think they look like they are posessed by the devil. There is not a lot of middle ground. You be the judge...


If I saw that thing coming toward me at the dog park I would run. To be fair I will now attempt to locate the cutest and most flattering picture of a greyhound dog:


The only thing we have decided was that our dog's name regardless of breed will be Frederick. The reason is clear to those of you who are history enthusiasts and know the name of our cat. Since I have a hunch that may be zero to one person I will fill in the details. Glenn's step mom can never remember the name of our cat and the last time we were there she asked if his name was Frederick Douglas. We both found this rather funny and thought the name Frederick would be a nice addition to our pet family. It makes me laugh when animals have formal sounding names and both Douglas and Frederick fit the bill. With the added bonus of the historical reference how could you go wrong?