Sorry...

Felt very tired and lethargic lately....haven't felt like posting. Will do this weekend. Over and out :)

Job #2

Well, I may have finally successfully gotten a second job. I've been wanting to get a part time job so that we could be a little bit more financially secure. We could make it on just what Eric and I make right now, but it's nice to have a little breathing room/extra money to put toward debt.

I seriously considered Starbucks for a couple of major perks: benefits and coffee :). Eric and I desperately need some health insurance. We've been without it for the entire time we've been married, which is scary at best. So, the thought of having health insurance that someone else helps pay for is very nice. And, getting a free pound of coffee a week was a nice perk too. I drink coffee every morning (the teacher's drug of choice), and ever since our good friend Andrea started giving us coffee while she worked there, we've gotten quite spoiled on the good coffee. Folger's just doesn't do it for us anymore.

BUT...the thought of having to get up even earlier in the morning (aka...at work at 5:30) on the mornings that are supposed to be my days off (like Saturdays) really didn't appeal to me...

SO...when Andrea told me that she had a friend who is a manager at the new IKEA here in Cincinnati, I decided to give her a call. Turns out they too have benefits for part time employees, and there won't be any 5:30 starts working there. I had an interview today, and Tara (the manager) said that unless something in my background check sends up red flags, I should have a part time cashier job there starting in mid-February when training starts (the store doesn't actually open until March 12).

They have some pretty cool stuff at IKEA, which is a Swedish furniture/home decor store. If you'd like to check out their stuff, you can go their website.

Just thought I'd share that bit of exciting news in our lives. Other than that, life is still pretty boring :)

I Love My Husband :)

I have to admit that there are times when I wish my husband was slightly more romantic, planning dates and surprise outings, flowers, etc. But, those times when he does plan things remind me of exactly how good I've got it.

Last year for our anniversary, Eric surprised me with a trip to Gatlinburg, TN, which was about an hour and a half or two hours from where we were living at the time. I told him then that he'd set the bar pretty high for himself. This year, while I know he really wanted to do something like that, financially it was not a wise move. But, he still made sure to plan a good date night/couple of days. We're getting ready to go see the Sweeney Todd movie (which I know doesn't sound romantic, but given how much I want to see it, it's very romantic for me :)), and then he's taking me to this Italian Restaurant down in Kenwood called Maggianno's Little Italy. My family first discovered this restaurant in Chicago 5 or 6 years ago, and ever since then when we would go back to Chicago we always made a point to go. This summer we found out there is one in Cincinnati. I'm super excited. And tomorrow, we're going to use some gift cards my parents gave us to go to Red Lobster for lunch. I'm going to be so full for the next day and a half but it's totally worth it because I love those two restaurants.

My husband is so good to me. I love it when he plans things for us to do. Happy Anniversary to us! (and yay for 3-day weekends in which to celebrate)

P.S. In case anyone wanted to know, unloading a trailer at 7 in the morning to set up church when it's 3 degrees outside is not fun. Way too cold for my tastes...

Go Patriots and Packers!!!!

3-day weekends...

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely love what I do for a living. No, maybe I should say that I love the idea of what I WILL do for a living once I get an actual teaching job. But it can really take a lot out of you. I already know that I am going to live for the weekends. If you ever hear anyone say that teaching must be an easy job...laugh at them. Then tell them you know someone who is a teacher and that you know the truth. Teachers deserve all the breaks they get. But, that's a soapbox and I will now step down.

All that is to say that I am so thankful that this is a three day weekend. I think this semester is gonna be a little more tiring than last semester. The students we will be having seem like easier students to deal with, but there's more of them. Last semester, our average class was around 7 (which I realize sounds low, but think of the hardest, most down and out kids you know and combine them with very stubborn, "tough" kids, and that's the 7 kids we have...it can get quite frustrating). This semester our average is around 10 or 11.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I can see it. And in the mean time, I'm going to enjoy my three day weekend :)

Wishes for a "specle" birthday!

This card is a birthday card from me to my mom in 1990 (think 8 year old Kerri...who apparently couldn't spell the word special). "Specle" has been one of those inside jokes for our family ever since then. And today is her birthday again, so I just wanted to say happy birthday to my mom. I say it all the time, and I know it's cliche and corny, but my mom really is my hero. All that she's been through, all that she does every day, and yet she still stays sane (well, mostly...). Our family would not be what it is, nor do I think we would have survived without killing one another had she not been there to be the mediator. She gives me hope to be a better wife and a good mom. If I do marriage and children nearly half as well as she has, I will be content.

But anyway, I just wanted to tell her that I love her and I hope she had a fabulous birthday!

Memories

Do you ever have one of those moments where even while you're in it, you realize you'll probably remember it forever? I had one of those yesterday. And, it wasn't a particularly out of the ordinary moment, or even one that I think anyone else would think was funny, but it was just one of those times for me.

I have a student...we'll call him "D." Let me paint a picture for you. D is a 6th grader. He seriously can't be more than 4 ft. tall, and he's gotta be one of the shortest students in the school. He's a little black kid, and I tell you this because he's very fair skinned but has all of these freckles, kind of like Morgan Freeman (only lighter skinned). His voice is this crackly, scratchy sound but still he has that cute little kid sound to his voice. And he's seriously one of the funniest kids I've ever met. He's so easy going and light-hearted, constantly cracking jokes, etc.

So for the last month or so, I have been meeting with his class (4 kids total...very nice) down in the teacher's lounge. In the lounge is a vending machine. I think the top couple of rows are chips and pretzels and things like that. The next couple are candy bars, followed by a couple of rows of gum, poptarts, granola bars, etc. I made the mistake the first day I took them down there to buy a thing of starbursts to share with them, so every day after that, they wanted to know if they could buy stuff out of the machine.

Yesterday, a couple of minutes before the class ended, D proceeds to stand in front of the vending machine and nonchalantly rate his "favorites" out of the machine, first by food type (i.e., candy bars, chips/pretzel type stuff, snack stuff, etc.), then determining his top 4 favorites out of the entire machine (which realistically only has 15 or so different things in it). What made it so funny was how enthusiastic he was in describing his favorites and why they were his favorites. I know that this description probably doesn't make it sound funny, but I was dying. I laughed so hard.

Tomorrow is my last day with D's class. I think I might have D again next semester (which starts on Tuesday), but the rest of them are done. Some of the kids that I've had this semester I think I'm going to miss. Unfortunately, on the whole, I can't say that about most of them. I think in part it is my own fault in not having the right attitude about this job, but I also think it's by virtue of the type of student I have. This job can be very rough sometimes...I just keep hoping it will lead to a teaching job next year. We'll see...

Another year of marriage...

Eric and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary last night. I wish I could say that we celebrated in style, but unfortunately that was not the case. This is not to say that it wasn't a fantastic anniversary, just not the romantic getaway my husband surprised me with last year (the trip to Gatlinburg...). But we don't really have the money for that right now anyway, and we went to Florida for the weekend instead.

I had flown back from Florida on Sunday (quite late at night I might add), but Eric didn't leave until Monday morning. So, as soon as I got off from work, I drove to Dayton to pick him up from the airport. We then went to pick Sadie up from the kennel, and she was SOOOO excited to see us. She was more hyper than I've seen her in a while. But almost as soon as we got back to the apartment we had to turn around a go to a creative team meeting for church. It did kind of suck to have a meeting on our anniversary, but I have to say that if I had to go to a meeting this would be the one. The people we volunteer with at Lifepoint are fantastic. And the meetings genuinely are fun to go to.

But, my parents sent us gift certificates to Red Lobster, so one evening this week we will most certainly be celebrating. Well, either that or we will use them later this month when I have a three day weekend and we actually celebrate our anniversary. Who knows.

It's kind of strange to think that we've been married for 2 years. Sometimes it feels like there's no way it's been that long, and other times it feels like it's been longer than that. Eric really makes it easy to be married. Everyone always says your first year of marriage is the hardest, but really I don't feel like this has been hard at all. Yes, there are times when I want to strangle him (and I KNOW there are times when he would like to do the same), but it's never really been "hard." I think we had a lot of things working in our favor long before we ever got married. We both came from strong, Godly families, and our parents had strong marriages we learned from. We always talk about how thankful we are for our respective in-laws and the people they taught us to be. And, we were friends first, which sounds cliche, but I really think it helped. We had excellent pre-marital counseling, and we made it a point to talk about all the hard issues before we said "I do."

All of that is to say, I really love being married to Eric. And I'm excited for another year. Thank you so much to all of you guys for your prayers and encouragement. I know it has helped us immeasurably, and it really means a lot to us.

Florida was awesome. It's really encouraging to spend quality time with other individuals and couples who are doing the same kind of ministry. I cannot put a value on what we learned and shared this weekend. We met this couple from Munich, Germany, that we'd really like to get out to see sometime. The wife, Bethany, is from Arnold, MO, which is only an hour or so from where I grew up. So we talked about Cardinals baseball :). The husband is from Northern Ireland, and he could really not be any more of the stereotypical Irishman. Speaks his mind, very outpoken, THICK Irish accent, and absolutely hysterical. He gives 100% to everything it does. Another of the couples actually had a baby this Sunday, so it was awesome to get to hang out with them right before their baby was born.

And, speaking of babies, I want to wish a very special happy 1st birthday to Finley Roberson, who we had the honor to hold the day she was born. If you'd like to see pictures of her from day one until now, you can check out her blog We do miss her and her parents soooo much!!!!

Ok, that's all I got for now. Night!

Sunny and 72 Degrees

I love Florida. I don't get down here very often, but when I do, I absolutely love it. Eric and I are down here for a campus ministry retreat with Impact Ministries. We flew in on Thursday evening/Friday Morning (supposed to get in around 10:30 on a flight from Dayton through Cincinnati, but one was delayed so we ended up going through Atlanta and getting in after midnight...gotta love the airports). It is beautiful down here, and much better than the 42 degrees and rainy it would be in Cincinnati right now.

Eric and I are trying to come up with our year-long goals for this year...not resolutions just goals. I recently saw a church sign that said "I hope your troubles last as long as your New Year's Resolutions." Made me laugh. Probably the best church sign I've seen in a long time. Haven't solidified them yet, but perhaps when we do I'll throw them on here so you guys can pray for us, encourage us, and keep us accountable in them.

I've met some pretty cool people here. One couple lives/ministers at a University in Munich. She's from Arnold, MO, he's from Northern Ireland. Pretty interesting couple. VERY passionate about what they do. Then again, everyone here is passionate about what they do. It really is encouraging to be around these people. Definitely something I should do at least once a year. It's hard to sit here and not be fired up about doing campus ministry. But that's it's desired effect so I'd say it's working.

I'll fly back to Cincinnati tomorrow to resume my daily grind of tutoring kids in math. I shouldn't be counting down the days until the end of the semester, but I definitely am. It's not that I'm not appreciative of this job, I just can't wait for my own classroom. But I think I've said that before.

Anyway, just wanted to give you guys a brief update. We had the best Christmas ever this year, and maybe when I get home I can put pictures and stuff up to document the amazing time we had.

I know it's a little late, but happy new year!