I need a better attitude about my job. I just keep hoping that when I get my own classroom, and a history teaching job, I will look forward to going to school. In truth, there is a part of me that looks forward to work. I do enjoy working with students. But man this job is hard. Very hard.
I know it will get better. It has to.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Mortality of Life
About two and a half years ago, my grandmother died. When that happened, I realized that I had gotten to the point where having a grandparent die was not out of the ordinary. In other words, I was getting older, which meant everyone else was too, and the truth of the matter was (and is) that the older people get, the more likely it is that they could die. Being in my 20's then, unfortunately meant my grandparents are at least in their 60's if not their 70's...
And, then about a year ago, one of my closest friends from growing up lost his mother. She had battled illnesses since we were younger, but this once finally was too much for her to overcome. Once again, I had one of those moments where I realized that I was getting older. It could have been one of my parents or Eric's parents. In truth, over the last few years I have been very concerned about my own dad. I worried about whether he was taking care of himself. I wasn't the only one worrying about him. Thankfully, he has gotten better about taking care of himself, but I do still worry about him. I want him to be healthy, and I want him to be around for a long time.
Unfortunately, unless God comes back first, everyone will die.
And this week, I've really been struck with my own mortality. One of my good friends has been sick for about a week, and in the hospital since Monday night. He'd been having stomach pains, went in to the doctor, who then told him to go to the ER, and he's been there ever since. And despite the tests they've run, they have no idea what's wrong with him. Now, that I'm aware of, no one is really worried about this being a fatal thing. It's not a question of if he will get out of the hospital, but one of when he will. Obviously they won't let him leave until they can figure out what's wrong with him (and I don't know that he would want to leave the pain medications behind until then either). But, despite CAT scans, chest x-rays, colonoscopy, biopsy, antibiotics, etc., they cannot figure it out.
He is the same age Eric is. Which is only 3 years older than me. Our bodies will start to have problems. Stupid Adam and Eve. This was not supposed to happen to us, but now it does. And I'm not so young anymore :(
Life is so fragile. Doctors don't always have all the answers. And we can't fix old...
And, then about a year ago, one of my closest friends from growing up lost his mother. She had battled illnesses since we were younger, but this once finally was too much for her to overcome. Once again, I had one of those moments where I realized that I was getting older. It could have been one of my parents or Eric's parents. In truth, over the last few years I have been very concerned about my own dad. I worried about whether he was taking care of himself. I wasn't the only one worrying about him. Thankfully, he has gotten better about taking care of himself, but I do still worry about him. I want him to be healthy, and I want him to be around for a long time.
Unfortunately, unless God comes back first, everyone will die.
And this week, I've really been struck with my own mortality. One of my good friends has been sick for about a week, and in the hospital since Monday night. He'd been having stomach pains, went in to the doctor, who then told him to go to the ER, and he's been there ever since. And despite the tests they've run, they have no idea what's wrong with him. Now, that I'm aware of, no one is really worried about this being a fatal thing. It's not a question of if he will get out of the hospital, but one of when he will. Obviously they won't let him leave until they can figure out what's wrong with him (and I don't know that he would want to leave the pain medications behind until then either). But, despite CAT scans, chest x-rays, colonoscopy, biopsy, antibiotics, etc., they cannot figure it out.
He is the same age Eric is. Which is only 3 years older than me. Our bodies will start to have problems. Stupid Adam and Eve. This was not supposed to happen to us, but now it does. And I'm not so young anymore :(
Life is so fragile. Doctors don't always have all the answers. And we can't fix old...
Thursday, February 21, 2008
One Day of Work this Week
So, we had Monday off for President's Day, Tuesday off for conference compensation day, Wednesday off for a snow day, and now they've canceled classes for tomorrow too. So, I worked a grand total of 1 day this week at school. But man was it a doozy.
I don't know how many details I should put on this blog, but I'll just put it this way. One of my students stole my cell phone from my bag today in class, and he had to suffer the consequences. Legal consequences. If you wanna hear the whole story call me, and I fill in the gaps.
Eric is going to a retreat this weekend with other Ohio campus ministries. So I'll be alone this weekend. I hate it when he goes away. My dad always used to say that he didn't sleep as well when mom was gone. I never really understood that. I do now...it's weird when he's gone. Oh well. It's two nights...I can make it :)
I actually got to work with the cash registers tonight at IKEA training. That's much better than than all the paperwork I have been doing. I assume it's gonna start getting kinda hectic at work there with opening only a couple of weeks away.
That's about it for now. :)
I don't know how many details I should put on this blog, but I'll just put it this way. One of my students stole my cell phone from my bag today in class, and he had to suffer the consequences. Legal consequences. If you wanna hear the whole story call me, and I fill in the gaps.
Eric is going to a retreat this weekend with other Ohio campus ministries. So I'll be alone this weekend. I hate it when he goes away. My dad always used to say that he didn't sleep as well when mom was gone. I never really understood that. I do now...it's weird when he's gone. Oh well. It's two nights...I can make it :)
I actually got to work with the cash registers tonight at IKEA training. That's much better than than all the paperwork I have been doing. I assume it's gonna start getting kinda hectic at work there with opening only a couple of weeks away.
That's about it for now. :)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Professional Wedding Pictures
Ok, after 4 hours of uploading pictures, I finally have all of our professional wedding pictures loaded onto photo bucket (well, not all of them, but a lot of them...I did some weeding out of pics).
If you want to see them, go HERE
Enjoy!
If you want to see them, go HERE
Enjoy!
It's About Freakin' Time!
We finally have the digital proofs of our wedding pictures, which means that in theory we should be able to get our own prints of them soon. Very long story behind this (since we've been married 2 years and still don't have pictures).
But, I'm working on putting them in photobucket so people can see them if you'd like. I'll post a link up here when that's done!
In other news...I'm excited about the 2-hr delay today (especially since we had Monday and Tuesday off). I'm seriously not sure I'm gonna be able to get out of my parking lot, so I may have to call in a personal day. I think we must have gotten more snow here than they did in Colerain.
Have a great Wednesday (or whatever day you're reading this on).
But, I'm working on putting them in photobucket so people can see them if you'd like. I'll post a link up here when that's done!
In other news...I'm excited about the 2-hr delay today (especially since we had Monday and Tuesday off). I'm seriously not sure I'm gonna be able to get out of my parking lot, so I may have to call in a personal day. I think we must have gotten more snow here than they did in Colerain.
Have a great Wednesday (or whatever day you're reading this on).
Monday, February 18, 2008
So begins the long, arduous process...
We officially have a meeting with a realtor next Thursday. And, we've been pre-qualified for a mortgage. But, we're still not sure that buying a house is what we should do.
We have a lot more debt than we would like to have. Most of that debt is in student loans. Unavoidable, yes. Beneficial, yes. But still debt. And we don't want to have it. We want to get rid of all of it so that we can be generous. So we can have savings. So we can have nothing but a house payment--and really if we're being honest, I'd love to not even have a house payment.
So we're faced with a difficult decision. Do we significantly reduce the size of our living space (i.e., down to a one bedroom apartment), so that we can reduce our rent to $500-$600 a month, and dedicate the majority of our income to paying down debts. Or, do we buy a $80,000-$100,000 house, and continue paying off debt the way we have been. We just can't decide. I suppose it might come down to whether or not we can find a house that we really like, or even an apartment that we really like or can live with.
Eric is at this moment is interviewing for a part time job at IKEA. If he gets it, then both of us would have 2 jobs--one full time and one part time. I just wish this decision was easier to make. We both stress about it. We just don't know what to do.
If anyone has any advice, please feel free to share it. We would greatly appreciate it...
We have a lot more debt than we would like to have. Most of that debt is in student loans. Unavoidable, yes. Beneficial, yes. But still debt. And we don't want to have it. We want to get rid of all of it so that we can be generous. So we can have savings. So we can have nothing but a house payment--and really if we're being honest, I'd love to not even have a house payment.
So we're faced with a difficult decision. Do we significantly reduce the size of our living space (i.e., down to a one bedroom apartment), so that we can reduce our rent to $500-$600 a month, and dedicate the majority of our income to paying down debts. Or, do we buy a $80,000-$100,000 house, and continue paying off debt the way we have been. We just can't decide. I suppose it might come down to whether or not we can find a house that we really like, or even an apartment that we really like or can live with.
Eric is at this moment is interviewing for a part time job at IKEA. If he gets it, then both of us would have 2 jobs--one full time and one part time. I just wish this decision was easier to make. We both stress about it. We just don't know what to do.
If anyone has any advice, please feel free to share it. We would greatly appreciate it...
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Soooo Tired of Moving
I had all day training on Saturday for IKEA. The morning part was ok (even though it started at 8...ugh), but after lunch it just tanked. It was amazingly boring. I felt like I was in high school again--sitting there listening to a series of lecturers talk at you, repeating things way too many times, about things that you just really feel like you'll ever use or need to know. But, that's the life of a new employee. I don't work again until next Tuesday (the 19th).
We started a new series at church on Sunday. One of the bigger churches here in the area--Crossroads--(which incidentally is where Andrea works) every year puts together a 7 week all church journey. Every single part of their church shuts down (in the sense that it abandons all of their own topics/programs) so that the entire church talks about or focuses on the exact same thing. This includes all the kids stuff, college age stuff, etc. Along with that they demand (or ask very forcefully I guess) that every single adult in their church join a small group only for those 7 weeks. After that they can quit.
At any rate, Crossroads also provides their materials to any of the local churches that would like to do the same thing in their church. So, LifePoint is doing so. The series is called Consumed and it revolves around money. Thankfully, it's not one of those "sell all your possessions so you can give it all to charity and live the life of utter simplicity." Instead, it focuses on the fact that God desires for us to be blessed and to have nice things (although not necessarily everyone with the same amount unfortunately). What that means is that the goal is to learn to enjoy the blessings you have rather than being consumed by them. Learning to be free of the bondage of money and finances so that we can truly enjoy them and enjoy life.
As a part of that, we decided to host one of the small groups. But, we must have cooties because only 2 other people signed up--Chris and Dawn Owens, our worship minister and his wife. We are actually really enjoying getting to know them.
(Small side note--on the topic of cooties, everyone must view THIS VIDEO)
And finally, as the title of this blog suggests, Eric and I have decided to move once again--although thankfully not far this time. We had been contemplating moving this summer to be a little closer to Oxford (to cut down Eric's drive time). But we decided for sure it was time to move when our apartment complex decided to raise our rent. Unfortunately, that means we need to find a new place to live and be moved out of here by the beginning of May. We'd like to find a house to rent or something like that. And, on a couple of different occasions the topic of buying a house has been brought up. That thought scares the crap out of me. On the other hand, we're having a very hard time finding a place to live with cheaper rent that will allow us to keep out dog.
So...if you think about it, please be praying for us. That we find a nice place to live--be it renting or buying--and that we make wise decisions...
We started a new series at church on Sunday. One of the bigger churches here in the area--Crossroads--(which incidentally is where Andrea works) every year puts together a 7 week all church journey. Every single part of their church shuts down (in the sense that it abandons all of their own topics/programs) so that the entire church talks about or focuses on the exact same thing. This includes all the kids stuff, college age stuff, etc. Along with that they demand (or ask very forcefully I guess) that every single adult in their church join a small group only for those 7 weeks. After that they can quit.
At any rate, Crossroads also provides their materials to any of the local churches that would like to do the same thing in their church. So, LifePoint is doing so. The series is called Consumed and it revolves around money. Thankfully, it's not one of those "sell all your possessions so you can give it all to charity and live the life of utter simplicity." Instead, it focuses on the fact that God desires for us to be blessed and to have nice things (although not necessarily everyone with the same amount unfortunately). What that means is that the goal is to learn to enjoy the blessings you have rather than being consumed by them. Learning to be free of the bondage of money and finances so that we can truly enjoy them and enjoy life.
As a part of that, we decided to host one of the small groups. But, we must have cooties because only 2 other people signed up--Chris and Dawn Owens, our worship minister and his wife. We are actually really enjoying getting to know them.
(Small side note--on the topic of cooties, everyone must view THIS VIDEO)
And finally, as the title of this blog suggests, Eric and I have decided to move once again--although thankfully not far this time. We had been contemplating moving this summer to be a little closer to Oxford (to cut down Eric's drive time). But we decided for sure it was time to move when our apartment complex decided to raise our rent. Unfortunately, that means we need to find a new place to live and be moved out of here by the beginning of May. We'd like to find a house to rent or something like that. And, on a couple of different occasions the topic of buying a house has been brought up. That thought scares the crap out of me. On the other hand, we're having a very hard time finding a place to live with cheaper rent that will allow us to keep out dog.
So...if you think about it, please be praying for us. That we find a nice place to live--be it renting or buying--and that we make wise decisions...
Thursday, February 7, 2008
It's Official!
Well, I am now officially an IKEA employee. I went in today and took my drug test. It was the most interesting thing. When I think of drug tests, I think of peeing in a cup or having blood drawn. Instead, I scraped the inside of my cheek with what looked like a small piece of white cardboard, then put it between my cheek and my gums for 3 minutes. It was weird.
Then, I got the tour. That place is like a small city. It's not completely built finished yet. The exterior is completely built, but there are some parts of the inside that they are still putting the finishing touches on. Most of the walls haven't been painted, and there's still a lot of display stuff that needs to be built, arranged, priced, etc. I think that's a lot of what I will be doing over the next month besides training to do my actual job (cashier).
I'm actually really looking forward to it. I'm not necessarily excited about working, and having to choose carefully my time off. But, I'm excited about the extra income, and I'm excited to work at IKEA.
In other news, Eric and I are really starting to take a larger role in our church. We're on a couple of creative teams, we're both on the set up/tear down team, as well as a couple of other teams. It kind of feels like life is about to get very busy and interesting. We'll see...
Be praying for us. I swear we get more grown up all the time!!!
Then, I got the tour. That place is like a small city. It's not completely built finished yet. The exterior is completely built, but there are some parts of the inside that they are still putting the finishing touches on. Most of the walls haven't been painted, and there's still a lot of display stuff that needs to be built, arranged, priced, etc. I think that's a lot of what I will be doing over the next month besides training to do my actual job (cashier).
I'm actually really looking forward to it. I'm not necessarily excited about working, and having to choose carefully my time off. But, I'm excited about the extra income, and I'm excited to work at IKEA.
In other news, Eric and I are really starting to take a larger role in our church. We're on a couple of creative teams, we're both on the set up/tear down team, as well as a couple of other teams. It kind of feels like life is about to get very busy and interesting. We'll see...
Be praying for us. I swear we get more grown up all the time!!!
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