Quick Update

It's time for bed but I haven't updated in a while, so here's a quick one:

Last weekend it got down to -15 degrees in Wasilla at the high school retreat, but it was fun.

Last week I had a good time in Boston, learning about Prader-Willi Syndrome and spending time with Tim's mom and sister. (Not to mention it being in the 60's while Tim was enjoying single-digit temperatures).  And Tim and I are leaving on Tuesday evening to go to Dallas for Thanksgiving! :-)  Tim's mom, sister, brother and sister-in-law will all be there and it should be a super fun time!  

Good night!

The Snow Is Here To Stay!

Well, it snowed big time on Sunday night!  When I got to church at 6, a few flakes were falling, but not very much.  After church, I heard someone say, "It's snowing!" and I thought, "Well, yeah, but it's not THAT big of a deal."  And when I go outside I realize it was a big deal!  Everything was covered in snow and it was steadily falling!  So of course I had to take pictures of the parking lot.  I was in shock because there was nothing on the ground two hours earlier.  

When I got home I let Max out because he had never seen snow before and he was a little wary of it, so I picked him up and put him in it, and he ran back inside.  I know, I'm so mean.  :-)

I'm going to Wasilla this weekend for a high school retreat with Tim's church and a couple other churches.  It's going to be sooooo cold!  And we're probably going to play some kind of broom ball-ish game on the frozen lake....I think last year they played "broom salmon" because instead of a ball, they used a frozen fish.  Yummy!

Well, I need to continue getting ready for work because I need to leave early since the traffic gets backed up and I have to go like 35 mph because of the snow.  Maybe I don't really NEED to go that slow, not everyone does, but I'm a good, cautious driver. :-)

Have a good day!

I Could Be a Meteorologist!

I was wrong about the snow (hence the title of this blog)...it melted...oh well. :-)

It's Snowing!

It is finally really snowing, and I think it's going to stick.  Of course it was forecasted to be partly cloudy and sunny tonight and tomorrow...I guess you can't predict the weather no matter where you live.  So why do we have meteorologists?

Well, I need to get to bed, but I was just excited about the snow and wanted to share.  I'm sure I'll be sick of the snow after looking at it for a few months, but right now it's pretty cool. :-)

Good night! :-)

Boston Bound

I was asked after school today if I would like to go to Boston for a week for a training.  Of course I said yes!  I leave November 16th with Nicole, a teacher I work with, and come back the 21st.  The training is on a syndrome (that I forgot the name of) that a student who will be returning to us in January, has.  The training is only two days and the rest of the time is ours to have fun. :-)  Tim's mom and sister live in Boston so I'm sure we will be getting together, and I am really looking forward to that!  It will also be nice to have a week away from the kids and then when we get back, I'll only be at work two days before Tim and I leave to go to Carrollton for Thanksgiving!

This week I am going to be very busy with my class.  My annotated outline and bibliography for my paper is due Sunday night.  I have to find 8 to 10 sources and read them and write a summary for each for my bibliography.  I have a few sources, but haven't read them yet.  Coincidentally, Tim has a workshop that he will be at until 9 pm Wednesday through Friday this week, so it will help me not procrastinate because I won't have him to distract me.  (He doesn't distract me on purpose, but I'd much rather spend time with him than do school work).

This is the 5th week of the class, which means I'll be half-way done!  It hasn't been too bad yet, and once I get my outline and bibliography done, writing the paper shouldn't be too hard.

Tim and I got candy and were ready to hand it out to trick-or-treaters on Saturday, but no one came!  I was surprised.  There are a lot of kids in the building next to me so I thought for sure they would come by.  But no one came so we went out to dinner and watched the movie Halloween.  Friday night we watched 30 Days of Night, which is about vampires coming to Barrow, Alaska during the month when they get no sun, and it was REALLY scary!  Then we watched Psycho, which Tim had never seen and I fell asleep during because I had seen it several times, plus I was really tired.

Time to go get dinner started.  I'm actually cooking tonight!  Chicken spaghetti....yum!!

Sad News

Roy Tyndall, who I asked you to pray for, passed away Thursday night during his triple bypass surgery.  Now I ask that we continue lifting up prayers for his family.  They are so sweet and really hurting right now.

Time for bed while it's still relatively early, thank to the end of daylight savings time...which means it's going to start getting dark at about 5 p.m.

Good night!

Moose Sightings!

My Anchorage moose sightings are now up to 3! And 2 were yesterday! I saw a female that had just crossed the road last night on my way to church...again really close to my car! Then on the way home from Tim's house, a BULL moose was standing on the side of the road, my side again. Amazing!! I don't know if I'll get used to this. Seeing deer is one thing, but moose (meese? mooses?) are so much bigger and actually kind of scarier, but awesome at the same time!

On a serious note, I would like to ask for prayers for a man named Roy whose family used to go to church with my family. He is having a second bypass surgery this afternoon and is really sick. He has a family history of heart problems and has suffered many heart attacks, and now has pneumonia, congestive heart failure, liver and kidney problems, anemia and only 20% of his heart is working. This is a very sweet family who has been through A LOT over the years and they need prayers for strength and peace and please pray for God to heal Roy.

I mentioned last post about the book my home Bible study group is reading, called "The Prodigal God" by Timothy Keller. It is very good! It is about the parable of the prodigal son, but with a new perspective that I had never thought of before. We usually focus on the part of the story of the younger son who asks for his part of his father's inheritance, squanders it, lives foolishly, then comes to his senses and comes back home not believing he is worthy to be a son but just a servant, but the father gladly welcomes him back. The father gives him nice things and throws a feast for him. The story is usually used to show that God loves us and no matter how far we run away from Him, if we decide to come back, He will welcome us with open arms. That is very true and is one point to the story. However, the other part, "Act 2", as this author puts it, is about the older brother.
The older brother complains to the father that he has never disobeyed his father and yet his brother is getting this wonderful treatment, and taking from the older brother's inheritance. (The younger brother had already taken his part, so what was left was the older brother's, and now the father is taking from that and giving it to the younger brother). Remember that Jesus was telling this parable to pharisees. This author suggests that the point of the story was to focus on both brothers...both were lost...both were living to control the father and get what they wanted...one did it by being very, very bad and the other did it by being very, very good. But BOTH didn't love the father, but wanted His stuff. The "tax collectors and sinners" that Jesus was criticized for hanging out with were the "younger brothers" and the pharisees, who knew the law and tried to keep it perfectly, were the "older brothers". It's also interesting that Jesus leaves the story open ended. What happened to the older brother? What did he decide?
This is pretty scary stuff when you really think about it and think about your own life. (At least it is for me). "Younger brothers" are easy to spot: they go off on their own, live their own way, and do whatever they want and it's easy to see that they are lost. However, "older brothers" do everything right, they have very strong morals, and seem like they are doing ok, but they don't have that relationship, that love for God. They are good because they think that's how everyone should be and that is how you get heaven. We usually divide the world into these two categories, or at least into different levels of each extreme. Jesus, however, in this parable was saying he doesn't see us like that. He sees us as all lost, and he reaches out to everyone. Remember in the story, the father (who represents God) invited both brothers to the feast (heaven). When the younger brother came home, the father brought him in and when the older brother didn't want to go, the father went to him asked him to come. God wants all to be saved, and just because I am good, and go to church, am nice to people, and even do what God wants, doesn't mean I deserve good things from God, or even deserve heaven. I am lost unless I have a personal relationship with God (the agape and the phileo love Jesus talked about in John).
Until I started reading this book I didn't realize what I was doing. I had to take a hard look at why I live the way I do. Is it because I love God and realize without Him I would be nothing, or is it because I know that's what I'm supposed to do to get to heaven? It really makes you keep your motivation in check. It's easy for me to think about losing my dad, or not getting the answers to my prayers that I want, or going through hard times and wanting to say to God, "This isn't fair, I'm not a bad person, I do my best as a Christian, why can't something good happen??" That is trying to control God, something I didn't realize before. I may have never actually said those words to God, but I sometimes find myself feeling angry towards Him, wondering why He isn't being "fair" to me or my family.
I think it's all about maturing. As children, we were taught by our Christian parents and Bible class teachers the things we should do and how we should act as Christians, but as you get older, the relationship part needs to come, which no one can really teach you. It comes from reading God's word and praying to Him and keeping up the communication. That's how you build a relationship with anyone...spend time with them.
It's dangerous being the younger brother and believing you don't need God and you can just live however you want, but it's just as dangerous (if not more) being the older brother and thinking you can earn your way and that you deserve to be blessed because you are "good" and still not getting the "heart" part. My prayer for myself is that I will not just do things to check them off a list, but that I will realize that I am totally lost without God's grace, and there is nothing I can DO to earn that, and that God loves me whether I am a perfect Christian or not. I need to simply appreciate what God has done for me and in turn I will want to serve Him and do things for His glory and that is what He wants. He wants your heart!

Have a wonderful, blessed day!!

New Perspective

Since the church Tim works at doesn't have Wednesday night services, we go to Anchorage church of Christ, and the class we're attending this quarter is on the teachings of Jesus. Last night was about love. Of course we talked about agape and phileo love and the difference between the two. Agape is the godly, self-sacrificing, servant love that isn't an emotional feeling, but a choice to act in the best interest of the person. Phileo is the emotional, brotherly, friendly love someone feels when they are emotionally connected to someone; it's not self-sacrificing and based more on feeling than a choice. This was not new information, but we started looking at different verses and at which word was used, and one verse that uses agape is John 3:16 when it says that God loved the world that He gave His son. So, God agapes the world. Then we looked at John 16:27 which is Jesus speaking to his disciples and he says, "No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God," and I thought, "Whoa, so this says if we don't love God, He doesn't love us, but we just read that God loves the whole world and of course God loves everyone no matter what, so what can this mean?" And then the teacher said the word used in this verse is phileo, the emotional bond love.  So then it all made sense in a way I never thought about it before.  God agapes everyone.  He has sacrificed for everyone, and loves us in the way that He wants the best for us.  However, he only has the emotional, phileo love, the bond where he loves us like a brother or best friend if we love him like that.  If we want God to love us like a close brother, we have to love Him like that.  We can't just say that we believe in God and He's great and I love Him because He loved me.  We actually have to believe that and have a relationship with Him.  We also are called to agape God.  How can we be sacrificing to God?  Doesn't he have everything? Jesus tells us that we show our love for God by obeying His commands (John 14:15). And we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, Romans 12:1.  We need to feel connected to God in an emotional way, but we also need to be willing to obey His commands and sacrifice what we want for what God wants of us.

This is pretty basic stuff that Christians know, and I knew it, but like many things, I realized that many times I get stuck in being more worried about doing the right thing and being the "good person" that I forget to nurture the emotional bond I should have with God.  For our home Bible study, we are reading a book called, "The Prodigal God" about the parable of the prodigal son, and it has given me a new perspective on that parable.  I don't have time to write about that now, but I will in the near future.

Right now I have to continue getting ready for work!  Happy Friday!!!!

Last night on the way home from Tim's place, I saw a moose in the median of the highway, about to come into my lane!  I swerved into the other lane because I didn't want her (I'm assuming it was a "her" because it didn't have any antlers) to charge my car.  Luckily it was uneventful, but pretty freaky seeing that huge animal so close!

Tim and I bought our wedding rings on Saturday!  He got a titanium band and I got an enhancer.  I will put pictures up once I have it.  Tim has his, but we put mine on layaway until November 7, when we can get it on sale.  We are both very happy with our rings. :-)

I'm really looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving and spending time with everyone, and also doing wedding stuff.  Most of what's left to do needs to be done at home, like getting the unity candle, centerpiece decorations, and other decorations, addressing invitations, and such.  Hopefully my dress will be in by December and when I go home again for Christmas, I can have one more fitting and get the alterations done by March.  

I've been watching Glenn Beck on Fox News and it is very interesting.  Did you know that Obama has surrounded himself with people on his administration who admire and have as role models people who are communists and marxists?  The more I hear about the President and who he has hired to advise him and help run the country, the more respect I lose for him and am afraid of where our country is headed.  I know God is in ultimate control so it's nothing I lose sleep over, but I'm praying that we get a new, better person in office in the next election.

Time to go be productive...TTFN!

Happy Hump Day!

Only 2 and a half more days until Tim comes home!  Yay!  I miss him and am ready for him to be back!  Although, I have already finished my classwork for this week, and will start on next week's assignments tomorrow, so that is really good!  I looked at the dates for my winter quarter class, and it starts in mid-January and ends March 19th, which means I will have assignments during my honeymoon!  Hopefully I will be able to get the work done ahead of time, or else I'll be working on it in Mexico!  Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I will have to respond to answers for that week's discussion, so I will definitely have to work on it in Mexico...bummer! Maybe I can explain the situation to my professor and he/she will let me off the hook for that week...I don't know.

I met with the assistant principal at school today to talk about my goals for this year, which are to learn more about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which the majority of our students have, and Autism.  I also mentioned wanting to go to the Level 1 area, which is across the hall from us, and the kids there have the more severe communication disorders, to become more familiar with them  and their routines in case I need to step in some day if one of the TA's is out.  And she said that with the new quarter beginning next week, Jamie, the teacher in that area will be starting on our side, Level 2, and I will be the only TA left there because they are moving the other three to different places in the school.  I knew the change was coming and I heard that there was going to be only one TA left in Level 2, and Denise had told me several weeks ago that they would never move me out of Level 2, so I was hoping she would keep her word, and she did!  She also said that I wouldn't have to go to Level 1 because I really would be needed in Level 2 full time to help with our kids.  That was good news to me because I prefer Level 2, and working with our kids, and although I would be willing to work in Level 1, I would MUCH rather stay where I am!  Friday is an inservice day so teachers can get grades in and I get to go to a training for first-year TA's.  It's an overview of Special Education so hopefully it will be informative.  At least it's an easy day without the kids!

Tim's mom and sister threw him a gift card shower on Sunday and I talked to them through Skype and "met" his family that was there, and we opened our gifts together that night, and got a lot of money in gift cards to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, plus some cash.  

Well, it's getting cold again, and it's been foggy the last couple of days.  No snow in the forecast anymore, but the temperatures are dropping into the 30's as the high.

Ok, time to eat dinner and then go to church!  (I never know how to end my blogs...I don't know if it's weird to say "Bye!" or "Have a good night" or what I should say.  Or should I have some sort of phrase I always use?  Any ideas would be much appreciated!)

While the cat's away, the mice will...work

Well, Tim went to Boston on Thursday and will be gone until next Saturday. It's not fun being away from him, but I have a lot to do so hopefully I'll get it done while he's away. I just finished the first week of my course in ethnic and cultural awareness and I'm already overwhelmed. This course has a much heavier workload than my last one and it's stressing me out. But since I have a lot of time to myself this week, I should get a lot done and maybe get a couple of weeks ahead. For those who don't know, since my courses are all online, the way they give you grades is by online discussions and papers. With this course I have two discussion questions to answer every week and have to respond to two people for each discussion. The initial posts are due by Thursday night (midnight central time, which is 9 pm for me), and the responses are due by Sunday night. The posts have to be at least 250 words and you have to support what you say with scholarly journal articles. That is the hardest part for me. Capella has an online library with a lot of databases to search, but it's difficult to figure out what terms to search for to get the kind of articles you need. That is what takes me the longest to do, because once I have what I need, the writing part flows pretty well. I also have one project for this class and different parts of it are due during certain weeks. The project is a 10-14 page paper addressing a problem of a certain cultural group of my choosing that I am not a part of. I am either going to do the Hispanic population or the elderly.
There's really nothing else exciting going on in my life. It hasn't snowed yet. It's just been rainy and the temperatures have pretty much been in the 40's and lower 50's during the day. So, since I have so much to do, I guess I better go do it! Have a lovely weekend!

Texas Our Texas

Well, I'm officially an Alaskan.  I have my Alaskan diver's license and I got my car registered and got my plates today.  It's kind of sad.  I've never been anything but a Texan, and had to surrender my Texas license to get my Alaskan one.  But I don't have to turn in my Texas plates, so I think I'm going to keep one and hang it on the wall. :-)  

So I decided to read through the book of Isaiah because I've never read the whole thing.  I decided to do that because the other day I read chapter 40, which has the popular verse 31, "Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary" (NASB).  When I got to that verse, I was like, "Whoa, there's that verse!"  Of course I knew that verse, but don't remember ever reading it in context with the whole chapter.  The heading for the chapter in my Bible is "The Greatness of God" and is all about how cool God is, about how powerful and caring He is and it just gave more depth and meaning to verse 31.  It was just a cool moment and inspired me to read the whole book.

I finally got my video done.  I just have to watch it on the TV and make sure it works and that the captions I added can be read.  My computer let me add a chapters menu, like all DVD's have, to jump to different parts of the DVD, but when I try it on the TV, it won't let me select a chapter.  But that is not a battle I want to fight. 

Bye Bye Fall :-(

Well, the fall weather was nice while it lasted, but now it's just plain cold.  Yesterday wasn't too bad actually.  It got up to the lower 50's.  But we're staying in the 40's most of the time now and it has been raining a lot, and there is lots of snow on the mountains which means it's coming our way, so yesterday I got winter tires put on my car.

And congratulations to Mitzi for correctly answering my riddle (the second time).  For those of you who missed it (shame on you for not reading my posts! J/K!!), the question was, "Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the world's tallest mountain?"  And of course, the answer is Mt. Everest.  It was still the tallest before it was discovered. :-)  

I turned on my heat for the first time last night, and a few minutes after it kicked in, the vent that runs along the bottom of two of my walls where the air comes out sounded like there was a rushing river in my apartment.  I'm not exactly sure what was happening, but Tim says his does that too, so I guess it's normal.  I was half asleep, and it was really loud and I was very confused and thought my apartment was being flooded or was about to be...yet I just laid there and went back to sleep.

I have been working on editing the video tape Tim and I took on our road trip from Texas to Anchorage this summer, and finally got it done and now I'm having trouble burning it to a DVD. It keeps telling me there's not enough disk space to encode something but I don't know if it's talking about my computer or the DVD.  I'm going to check out some other DVD-R's and see if there are some with more space, but I'm also going to see if I can hook my computer to the TV and just play it that way.  Don't you love technology?  And I found some tapes of family vacations and different things from several years ago that I want to put on a DVD as well.

This is my last week of freedom, as my Cultural and Ethnic Awareness class starts on October 5th.  Please pray that I don't stress myself out and take it out on Tim. :-)  This is my second class for my masters in Marriage and Family Therapy and it's 10 weeks long and will end just as Christmas break is beginning so that will be really nice. :-)

Ok, time to figure out my computer issues and get a nap in before church tonight!

Good Weekend

Well, the dance classes were a success! Tim actually had fun and said we could go out every once in a while to the different dances there are around town. :-) We ended up not going to the dance on Saturday night because the instructors were going to be there, watching and helping and we really just wanted to do it for fun and not be critiqued, so we're going to practice together and then go out some other time to just a normal dance. It was good to learn the basics and a couple variations. Tim enjoyed getting to lead and decide what he was going to have me do (spin, not spin, left side turn, right side turn, etc...)

Well, it's time for P.E., so I guess I better skedaddle. :-) Did anyone read my riddle or is it just too difficult to figure out?? :-) I'll give it one more day, and then give the answer.

Have a marvelous Monday!

Food and Dancing (Not the baby-making kind)

Today we had a potluck at work for all the September birthdays. There were four this week and one more in a couple of weeks. I made taco soup because it's really easy: just cook some meat and dump everything in a crockpot. It was a big hit and it was just about gone by the time I got to eat. I decided points (Weight Watcher's) don't count on your birthday (or on the day before your birthday :-) ).
Tonight Tim and I are going to the first session of our dance workshop this weekend. It's West Coast Swing Styling for all levels, which should be interesting...not sure what that entails but it should be fun. Tomorrow morning we have a West Coast Swing class for novices and then a novice Country Western 2-step class. After lunch there are intermediate swing and 2-stepping classes, and maybe I can convince Tim to sign up for those. We'll see how the beginning classes go before we decide if we're really ready for intermediate. Tomorrow evening is a dance to practice all the moves we learned. This will be Tim's first dance class experience so it should be lots of fun. I discovered swing dancing a few years ago when I went with a group from church and liked it a lot. It's pretty simple and just a lot of fun to twirl and none of that bumping and grinding stuff that makes babies (Church of Christ folks will know what I'm talking about :-p).

It's been a pretty interesting week. One particular student who didn't like me last week for enforcing the rules with her has liked me this week....another kid had a perfect day on Tuesday, but has had a few melt downs since then. Every day is just unpredictable and you never know what's going to happen. And now it's time to get back to work!!

Riddle Me This!

Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the world's tallest mountain?  

The first person to answer will be the winner!  (Not that there's a prize, but I thought it would be fun.)

Work is going pretty well.  I've been doing a lot of coloring.  We made some posters to brighten up the room and then today I started on a poster for the math room: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally to help the kids remember the order of operations.

Well, Tim is bugging me and we need to go to the gym so I'm signing off now!

Fall Colors

The leaves on the trees are beautiful, so I just wanted to share them with everyone.  Goodnight!

Well, it stopped raining just enough for us to take our engagement photos yesterday afternoon. We went to the "park strip" across the street from the church where there was a cool train engine and lots of flowers. A funny story about the train: I walked up the railing to get in the front of the train, and as I turned, I noticed a pair of legs and realized a homeless man was sleeping there! He had a heavy coat on with the hood over his face and I quickly turned around and we took our picture on the ground and on the very front of the outside of the train. The pictures came out really nice, and I've put them on Flickr. You can see them by going to http://flicker.com/photos/amy_thompson.
I weighed this morning and I have lost another pound! So that's a total of 13 pounds for me! :-) Tim has lost about 20, so we're doing really well! We're just doing Weight Watchers and going to the gym about 3 days a week. Our schedules are pretty full so it's hard to get it in every day.
As far as wedding plans, my flowers are ordered and should be arrive in 3-4 weeks and I got some thank-you notes yesterday. I have picked out the bridesmaid shoes, so I need to relay that info. to the girls, and I still need to find beverage napkins, and we're going to order disposable cameras for our guests to use during the reception so we get lots of fun pictures.
Yay for the Cowboys winning their season opener! I am actually happy for football season to be starting. I guess it's from all the Cowboy games I watched with my family last year, it kind of got me into it. But the game wasn't on TV up here. Hopefully I'll be able to watch next week.
It's getting colder! The highs this week are in the mid to upper 50's with lots of rain. I should probably get my snow tires soon.
I hope everyone has a good week!

Happy 9-9-09!

Joke of the day: Today's date, 9-9-09 in German would be translated, "No, no, oh no." :-)

This weekend Tim and I are getting our engagement pictures taken! There are a couple of places I have in mind. There is a park strip across from the church that would have several neat places to take pictures, and there is a botanical garden that I want to check out too. Hopefully it doesn't rain. Summer is definitely over. It's been in the upper 50's and lower 60's the last couple of weeks. This week the highs are about 60. It's nice sweater weather if the wind's not blowing, which is great!

We were at the bookstore on Monday and I found a DVD to teach sign language! It comes with a book to help you learn the signs and I watched part of it that night and learned lots of signs for different family members, rooms of the house, and basic question words like who, what, when, where, why, and which, and different prepositions, some of which I already knew. I really like signing and one of the TA's at work is fluent in ASL because both of her parents are deaf. I don't have anyone else to sign with, but I just like it and think it would be neat to know.

I'm practicing my piano every day and am getting better at the exercise Larissa taught me. She also gave me a book of simple solos and I learned the theme to The Munster's among others.

There are so many things I want to do. I also have lots of books on my bookshelf that I want to read. I really need to start reading my book for my class that starts in less than a month. My goal was to read it before the class starts so I'll already be familiar with it. One of the intervention coaches is really good at drawing, and that made me want to start drawing again. There's just so much I like to do, but I never take the time to do it. Plus there are the things I NEED to do, like laundry, and call my dental insurance, and plan a wedding (although I'm finding that most of what's left can wait until I'm home in November and December). I got the flowers done so that makes me feel better!

Well, I should get back to work. Just wanted to update since I hadn't written in a couple of days. Oh, and our Save the Dates should be going out by the end of this week, so that is exciting!

Good News and Bad News

I like giving bad news first, so then the good stuff is that much better.  My week is not getting any better...there were several incidents at school today.  One student got mad and pushed, kicked, and punched our intervention coaches and was arrested and suspended till Tuesday.  Another student scratched up his teacher's hand really bad and she had to get it bandaged, and one of our students didn't get his way and blew up and had to be carried out of the room by three intervention coaches.  Lucky for me, I was not involved with any of the incidents but it makes me sad to see our kids act like that.

Now for the good, exciting part...I'm starting piano lessons tomorrow!!! :-)  Larissa, our piano player at church, who is from Russia and is an AMAZING piano player gives private lessons and I asked if she had room for a new student and she did!  My lessons will be Fridays at 4:15.  I'm really excited because I have been wanting to improve my playing for a long time!

More good news is we get a long weekend this weekend which gives me lots of time to do wedding stuff!  So hopefully the kids will be nice tomorrow and will start the weekend off well!

I've Been Working on the Railroad...er...wait...

This week has been a little harder than last week. The kids have been having more melt downs and there is one particular student who is capable of doing her work and behaving well, but is afraid of getting older and having responsibility, so she chooses to act out and can manipulate the system to get her own way. I can see through her and don't like letting her (or anyone) get away with breaking the rules, so I have been trying to calmly enforce the rules with her which makes her mad and she was really rude to me all day yesterday and the day before, not wanting me to help her, walk with her, sit with her, etc. And because she has an attitude with me it make it difficult for me to be positive with her. And because I'm frustrated at work all day, but can't take it out on the kids, I take it out on Tim afterwards. I become more argumentative than normal and just makes Tim frustrated and he's too nice to say anything to me about it. He really is wonderful and I feel bad for taking out my anger on him. So, my goal from now on is to be nice to Tim because he's not the one who made me frustrated.
One cool thing about yesterday was a family of moose walked by the front of the school on the front porch in the morning. One of the other TA's came in and told me they were walking by and I went to the window just in time to see the back end of the last one. It was pretty cool.
This morning I didn't set my alarm correctly and I slept until 7:30, which is the time I'm supposed to be at work! I called the front desk to let them know I would be late, and I made it by 7:53. I also get to leave early today, at 12:30 to go to the New Employee Orientation at the district's administration building from 1 to 4:30. Not that I'm excited about the orientation, but it will be nice to miss the worst part of the day, and get paid for working an extra hour and a half. :-)
I think I'm going to use this weekend to get a lot of wedding stuff done. I made a list of everything that needs to get done, but just haven't had much time to do it.
Well, back to work for me! Thanks for reading!

Our State Fair is a Great State Fair...

The youth group went to the Alaska State Fair this afternoon, and although it didn't compare to our great "Texas Star" ferris wheel and "Big Tex", it was still fun.  We did get our picture taken with Hank the Moose (stuffed, not real) and I ate my first Buffalo burger, which was 100% ground buffalo and was really good.  I learned later that it's actually a lot healthier than beef too.  And Tim was sweet enough to ride a really fast, dizzying ride and the ferris wheel with me even though he doesn't like rides or heights.  We also saw the vegetable and fruit exhibit, where the first prize cabbage weighed 90 pounds!  And there was a 133.6 pound watermelon.

We also asked a lady that helps her husband teach the junior high class and is really involved with the youth group if she would be interested in taking our engagement pictures because I found out a couple of weeks ago that she likes photography and has a good eye for taking pictures, and she was really excited to do it.  She also has good ideas about pretty places to go which is good because I don't have a clue.  :-)

So, today has been a good, long, tiring day and I need to get to bed so I won't be dead at work tomorrow.  Oh, one more thing, Tim and I started Nurtrisystem a while ago, but didn't like being restricted to just their food because it wasn't that great, (even though we both lost 6 lbs. right off the bat) so we switched to Weight Watchers, and Tim has lost 15 pounds so far and I've lost 9. (It really is true that guys lose weight faster!)  And Tim got a membership to a gym by my house and it's really cool because members get to bring a guest with them once a day for free so we use that for me!  We've been twice and are trying to go as much as we can.  Tim is more motivated than me, which is why he was the one who got the membership because the guest can't go alone, but he drags me along unless it's late or something because he likes to stay up and I have to go to bed.  Which reminds me, it's past my bedtime, so good night!

Long time no write...

Sorry for the lack of updates...I'm not very good at being consistent at this thing.  I had an eventful weekend of climbing a 4,000 foot mountain, but was waiting to write about it until I had my pictures up to go with it.  Oh well...pictures will come soon.  We climbed a mountain called Flat Top with the youth group, and Steve, the guy from church that was heading it up, told me that it was no big deal, little kids hike it all the time, blah, blah, blah.  Well, this "hiking" trip was not a hike, it was walking up STEEP hills and rock climbing pretty much at the top and I was afraid for my life pretty much the whole time until we got down to the flatter part and there was a wide trail to walk on.  Yes, it was neat to be at the top and look around, but I'm not in great shape, and I don't like being afraid that I'm going to fall down the side of the mountain if I make a wrong move on an unsteady rock.

My week is going well.  The kids are starting to get into a routine and they are warming up to me. One girl who doesn't like to work, but likes to talk, has asked to go for a walk in the afternoon yesterday and the day before and asked if I could go with her and she has been telling me all about this boy she likes and all the teenage stuff that goes along with that.  Not that I approve of most of what she tells me she's doing, but I like that she feels comfortable enough with me to talk about it.

Well, I need to go so I am not late, so I will write more later!  Tim and I have registered at Kohl's for a few things and are going to Bed, Bath, and Beyond today to register for the rest!  It should be fun!  Hopefully we can find colors that we agree on.  We were having a little trouble when we were there to just look and get a feel for what we want.

My Mommy Made Me Mash My M&M's

Last night I had my first practice with the praise team at church because Anthony, the worship leader, asked Tim if I would be interested in singing with them. The praise team consists of three (now four because we got a new person last night) guitar players, piano player, and a lady who just sings. And now me. Anthony leads the songs and Sammi, the lady, sings and sometimes harmonizes and now they have me to sing the lower alto part. Except they don't have the actual music notes for most of the songs...just chords, so I have to figure it out as I go along. This Sunday is going to be a busy day for Tim so he told me after practice last night that he will probably be going to the first service and working to set things up during the other two services so he won't even be playing with us! He was my security blanket, but I guess I'll have to do it without him.
Yesterday work went a lot better than the first day. The kids had settled down a little until the afternoon when they fall apart every day. They were trying to get the district to shorten the day for these kids because they don't function well at all the last 1 - 1 1/2 hours of the day, but it didn't get approved. I am on my first break, and it's almost over so I really need to get back. This morning has been pretty easy; I've just been organizing the book room.
I'm happy it's Friday and we are going to see Big Daddy Weave tonight and I get to sleep in tomorrow!! Woo hoo!!

1 Down, 180 to go (give or take...)

Days of school that is!  Wow!  Today was the first day with our kiddos and it was a good day, just crazy!  I will just give you the highlights: first, their routine that they are used to was completely changed this year and none of them were compliant with that.  They were supposed to be having actual class periods instead of working independently the whole day, but they ended up doing their own work when they felt like doing it.  Two boys are as tall or taller than I am and bigger around and they pretty much roamed around, helped the intervention coaches set up a break room and move things around and did a little work.  The two girls were pretty rude and argumentative and got some work done.  The girl I was working with in the morning didn't have the best attitude, but she got a lot accomplished.  However, she had stayed out until 2 am this morning with "some guy" so she was tired and needed frequent breaks and took a nap during 3rd and 4th period; and then complained in the afternoon when we wanted her to do more work about how much work she had already done. (Maybe 3 worksheets)  Then on the way to the gym, she got in an argument with the nurse about something and said 4 or 5 F-words as I walked her down to the gym, then got mad and stormed out of the building and one of the intervention coaches, Mr. Butch, had to go get her.  

We did have one new 6th grade student who we weren't expecting, who didn't have a schedule so he stayed with us all day, and he was a really good kid.  He did everything we asked him to do and was very nice and funny and pleasant.

The girls are 17 and 16, and I'm assuming the two boys that were here today are close to that age.  We had one other boy that works on his own (with another teacher) separate from everyone else so I didn't really see him.  

So, basically it was a lot of redirecting kids, asking them to do their work, sending them to talk with the intervention coaches in the "practice room" where they practice following directions or whatever it is they were asked to do.  I never got the girl I was working with in the morning to do any work this afternoon.  She did write lovely comments on her math paper though: "I hate school.  I hate the teachers.  Don't ask me why because I don't know why.  I just hate my school work."  

Hopefully they will be still and quiet enough tomorrow and our teacher can explain to them that they WILL be rotating through their schedule as planned and hopefully it can be enforced.  This place is to help them understand and get used to how a "typical" school would function and get them to where they can eventually transition out into first, the other part of Whaley (this school) and go to classes with everyone else, and then to their actual home school.  

Even though it was pretty chaotic, I survived and just stayed calm and the staff there is really good.  It helps my stress level a lot that I don't have the legal responsibility for these kids like the teachers.  I'm there to ASSIST and do what I can.

On a better note, I think Max read my blog because since then, he's been a lot better!  He only bit/attacked me once or twice during the night and let me sleep and slept with me! :-)  He made me laugh today when I got home because I had just flushed the toilet and he was apparently fascinated by that.  He jumped up on the seat and would stick his head in the water and paw at it.  I don't think he drank it, as far as I could tell, but it looked like he wanted to.  :-)

Well, I can see that I will have plenty to write about with this job!!  Tomorrow we are practicing evacuation and disaster drills....so that should be interesting!  Oh, and apparently there was a 5.0 earthquake 30 miles from us which most of the school felt but those of us on our end never did!  (That says something about our situation, I think!)

Happy Birthday Max!

Today my cat Max is a year old!  I was going to get him a treat and some sort of hat or new toy or something, but first of all, I forgot...and I really don't have much spending money at all right now. So he'll just have to settle for Tim and me singing to him. :-)  He's still biting me and attacking me and annoying me and I think he should live at Tim's place.

My conference yesterday was pretty good.  Not much for my particular position specifically, but some very interesting information.  I still have two more days of training until the kids come.

So, happy birthday Max!!  And stop biting me! ;-)

Day 1 Successful

Today was a good first day at work. I will be in the "Level 2" area of the school which is for high school students that have to be separate from the rest of the school because of their behavior. The whole school is for special education kids and they have 6 periods a day, but the kids in Level 1 and 2 have to be separate; kind of like it's own school inside of the school. Level 1 is the "Sensory Center", and Level 2 is the "Learning Center". Our kids have extreme behavior issues, and a few have autism on top of that, but none are classified as anything. They have specific IEP's (Individualized Education Plans) and we have to record their "points" each day for their different goals. There are two teachers and four TA's in Level 2. When you walk in the room, there is an open area with a desk, and it's surrounded by about 10 classrooms. In the past, the kids just worked independently on work all day and they pretty much had their own room, but this year they are going to put them on a rotating class schedule similar to the rest of the school, but they will just be rotating within the big room. The teachers are still trying to figure out all the logistics about who is going to do what when and how to divide up responsibilities. One TA has to sit at the desk in the open area to sign kids in and out during the day, and another one has to be in a room with a couple of kids that cannot work with the other kids, etc.
The teachers are really nice, and it seems like a good place to work. The two teachers' names are Nicole and Dale, and Nicole told me that I can do a lot of observing the first week and just kind of let the kids approach me and let them get used to me. Two of the TA's have been in this area a while, and the other TA has been at the school since March of last year, but was on the other side of the building. We also have two "security" guys (intervention coaches) who do the physical restraining part, and their office is right across the hall.
Tomorrow we're all going to a convention center for district-wide training, including a class specifically for TA's which I'm looking forward to since I know nothing. It was nice, though, realizing that I don't have nearly the amount of responsibility as I did as a teacher. (Hardly any right now, other than be on time). Once school starts I'll be busy, but not outside of school, and TA's aren't even aloud to know the password to the new program for grades and attendance, so I don't even do that. I will help take attendance and record grades on paper, but I don't have any official responsibility for grades, lesson plans, or anything. So I can go home and relax instead of working until I go to bed. :-) Which will be good once my class for Capella starts in October. I'm taking my second class toward my masters in marriage and family therapy: Ethnic and Cultural Awareness.
Well, just wanted to share my first day with everyone because I knew certain people would be asking me. :-) Hope everyone has a good night!

Last day of freedom!

I'm starting my new job tomorrow!  I still don't know what class I'm going to be in, hopefully they will have made a decision by tomorrow.  We have a staff meeting in the morning, but the rest of the day is just to get the classroom ready.  Friday I have a district-wide training for special education teachers.  I'm excited to get started!

I went to the dentist today (long over due!) and didn't have any cavities!! Yea!  I went because I needed to get them cleaned and my gums looked at because they are really red and inflamed.  Sure enough, I have gingivitis and have an antibiotic rinse I have to swish in my mouth for 5 minutes 4 times a day!  I think that's a little excessive, but oh well.  I have to go back in a few weeks for another cleaning and to make sure the infection is gone.  The redness and puffiness is supposed to go away in a couple of weeks, so hopefully it does so Tim and I can get our engagement pictures taken.  They also said I need to get my fourth wisdom tooth out.  I had three pulled 4 years ago at the dentist, but they left one in because it was still impacted and for some reason didn't refer me to an oral surgeon to have it removed.  So now that it's come in I have to go to a surgeon and get it out.  Fun! :-/

Last week I went with Tim and some of his youth group kids to a statewide youth conference here called Fusion.  It was held at this gigantic Baptist church called Anchorage Baptist Temple.  There were concerts every night and a really good speaker, break out classes, and an illusionist and Christian artist.  It was a neat experience.  I got to see lots of Christian bands/singers that I hadn't heard before like Eleventyseven which is like a punk rock group and I couldn't understand anything the guy was singing but he was fun to watch jump around on stage.  I also saw Lecrae, a Christian rapper who was awesome!!  Brandon Heath performed the first night and he was really good too.  I had heard some of his songs on the radio.  Thousand Foot Krutch performed the last day, and I didn't particularly enjoy them because they are an extremely heavy rock band and just too loud for me.  We're going back a week from Friday to see Big Daddy Weave which is going to be really good.

Some exciting things that are going to happen in the near future: Tim got us theater tickets to see The Lion King in late September. :-)  He does not like musicals but is sweet enough to take me to see them.  Also, I discovered swing dancing a couple of years ago when I was at Prestoncrest CoC, and there is a swing and country western dance workshop the weekend of my birthday and Tim and I are going to that.  I told him it could be my birthday present.  We get to learn the basics of swing and 2-step (which I already know, but Tim has never danced, and I'm really not that great) and then a dance the second night to practice everything you learned.  I'm really looking forward to it.

Tim and I started Nurtrisystem last weekend. He started on Friday and I started Saturday.  The food's not the most exciting food ever, and I still get cravings every now and then when I see something that I can't have, like peanut butter (for those of you who know me well know how horrible that is for me!).  But the good news is I have already lost 6 pounds!  Tim has lost at least that much and we are looking forward to being skinny for our wedding! :-)

TTFN! :-)

Well, since being back from our trip, there hadn't really been much to write about...until now. First the good news: I have a job! I went on my interview on Friday, and it turned out to be a strictly special ed. school for 5th through 12th grade. The students are there because they have behavior issues. Some have Autism on top of the behavior issues. I had another interview on Monday at a middle school for a TA position in either a life skills class or autism/communications class. 30 minutes before I left for my second interview, HR called to offer me the first job. The lady told me I had 24 hours to decide, so I went to my other interview to see what kind of job it was for. After praying about it, and considering my options, I decided to go ahead and take the first job. I really enjoyed my sub jobs with autistic kids in Carrollton, but I didn't have a guarantee that the second school would give me an offer, and I decided that I would rather have the security of knowing I would work every day rather than sub, plus the first position actually pays a little more than subs because it's a Title 1 school. I don't know what classroom I'll be in but I start on August 13 and I'm going to HR today to fill out the paperwork. I was told in the interview that I would receive training on the verbal part of handling the kids, but there will be several therapists on campus to handle the physical restraining that is needed every once in a while. It will definitely be interesting and challenging, but I have a peace about it and am looking forward to it.

Onto the not so good, but more humorous news:

Because I'm such a nice fiance, and I know Tim enjoys doing things outside and we really hadn't done much, I asked if he would like to do something outside, and he immediately said, "Yes!" He had a pair of rollerblades in his car, so we decided to go skate. I don't own rollerblades because I've never done it before, so we went to the store and I bought myself a pair plus knee pads and wrist guards. And we were off! Tim assured me that he would be right there to catch me if I started to fall, so I wasn't too nervous. We went to a park that had a trail that was used by joggers, skaters, bikers, and it went through a disk golf course. I sat on the trunk of the car to put my skates on, and I had the same problem I had in the store which was, I couldn't stand up with them on. I'm used to roller skates with the brake on the toe, and just standing up on my toes, but of course you can't do that with blades, and Tim said, "Just stand up." That should have been my first clue I was in trouble...

So I awkwardly turn my feet and reach a standing position, put on my knee pads which were thankfully covered by my capris, and then adorn the wrist guards. We started skating around the park, Tim in the lead, and I was doing fine because I have ice skated, and it's pretty much the same thing and the ground was level. However, once we reached the main trail, we quickly reached a hill going down into a tunnel. I was not confident enough to go down the hill because I still could not brake. "Oh, you'll be fine," Tim says...I insist that I will not do it, so he gets in front of me and I hold onto his hands and he pulls me down the hill. It was scary, but Tim has been skating since he was about 12 so it was fine. We went through the tunnel and then up a big hill and by that time my ankles were hurting so we decided to turn around and go back. However, it was very much downhill the whole way back to the tunnel. I could tell because I didn't even have to try to push myself, and I would go and start to pick up speed. I went over to the grass on the side of the trail, and wondered if there was any other way to get back, but clearly there wasn't. I even considered taking the skates off and walking down. When I would start to go fast without trying, I felt like I did every time I went skiing. Very out of control because I can't stop. I have walked down a huge ski hill before holding my skis because I knew that if I tried to ski down, I would lose control and possibly hurt someone. But Tim assured me I would be fine and it wasn't that bad of a hill, and although I didn't believe him, I started down anyway. I was hoping he would offer his services again and guide me down, but no such luck. He skated down, and as I started down, I called, "Tim..." no response..."TIm..." That time I heard, "It's fine!" and I started going faster and faster, and yelled, "TIIIIIMM!!!!!" he had made it to the bottom, had just turned around, and I had just a few seconds to decide what to do: I could either turn at the bottom of the hill into Tim and hope he could catch me or at least make my fall not so hard, or continue straight into the tunnel where the ground leveled off, but probably fall anyway so I chose Tim. His eyes were so big when he turned around and saw me coming straight at him, and he put his hands out to catch me, but I was going too fast and I slid on my right side, and banged my wrist on the ground. (Good thing I got the guards!). I immediately started crying because of the adrenaline and the fear and anger at Tim, and I hit him on the leg and said something like, "You said you would catch me," or "I told you I couldn't stop!" I don't really remember because I was so upset. My leg was bleeding, and I started to take my skates off, but Tim insisted that I skate back. I did and I was fine, just upset and had a sore leg. I told Tim that this is why I'm not an outdoor person. The outdoors and I don't get along. And now I have a lovely road rash on my leg that is still pretty sore.

Tim felt really bad and apologized and even took me to Golden Corral, which he hates, to try to make it up to me. Because I paid a lot of money for these blades I will try again, but I will not go on any hills until I am comfortable braking.

Picture Update

ALL my pictures are on Facebook now. If you don't have a Facebook account, it's free and easy to start, and you can have access to all my pictures. Maybe I'll get a Flckr website and make ANOTHER picture album, but right now I am very tired of putting pictures on the Internet.
As far as my life...I have a long list of wedding stuff I need to do but have not been doing it...I guess I need to start on that...which includes going to the dentist so I can get my teeth fixed...well, more like my gums, which are red and enflamed and bleed when I brush my teeth, so we can get our engagement pictures taken.
Hope everyone had a good weekend!!! Love y'all! :-)

Pictures are here!

Just a quick update to say that I have uploaded the first batch of road trip pictures on my Facebook. You should be able to get to them with the link on the left. I have more to put on my computer and will upload those as well.
I also now have internet and TV in my apartment! Woo hoo!

We Made It!

Tim and I made it back to Anchorage last night. We had a nice, uneventful drive. There was a lot of construction which slowed us down, but other than that, it was a good ride. I will be posting my 200-and-something pictures soon. There were lots of cool things: two buffalo, a family of goats, a bald eagle, 4 moose, and one deer. We saw Old Faithful, crossed over the Continental Divide three times, I got to stand in two countries at the same time when we crossed into Alaska, and I got to see a glacier on the top and side of a mountain. One not-so-cool thing was when I killed a ground squirrel yesterday morning. (I think it was yesterday...my days have been running together) He was trying to cross the road and I couldn't stop or swerve in time, so I ran over him. :-( May he rest in peace.

I'm pretty exhausted and I have a job interview tomorrow for a special ed teacher assistant at an elementary school. Although, I'm still thinking I would prefer subbing; hopefully I'll have a better idea after the interview.

Tim had to work today, but at least he has the next two days off to relax. Speaking of Tim, he has a daily blog as well, called Deeper Faith Devos. He writes a devotional every day on a random verse. He started it for his youth group kids to read and I think it is really good. The site is http://www.dfdevos.com/. Before we left on our trip, he was writing the devos for the days we would be gone, and I actually wrote two of them to help him out. The first one came out on July 25th, and the second one will post tomorrow, if you're interested in reading.

I hope everyone has had a blessed week and has a great weekend!

Update...yes we're alive!!

We are now in Fort Nelson, British Columbia. Tomorrow we will drive to Whitehorse which is in Yukon, then to Haines Junction and on to Anchorage. We have yet to see any bears. :-( But we still have a long way to go so hopefully we'll see at least one (and have enough time to take a picture or video). Since we're in Canada, we can't use our cell phones because of the high rates. The second we crossed the border I got a text from AT&T saying that international data charges are $15.36/mb so I can't use the internet or text. Luckily, the hotels have free internet. I forget that I'm in Canada though because everything is in English, but then someone says something to us like, "It sure is hot out, eh?" and then I remember where I am.
Tomorrow is going to be an early and long day...at least 12, maybe 14 hours...so I better get to sleep! Goodnight!

The Open Road

Well, Tim and I are about half-way done with our road trip from Texas to Anchorage. Tonight we are in Lethbridge, Alberta and tomorrow we're heading to Edmonton for the day and night. We hope to get there relatively early in the evening/late afternoon and rest and go to bed early. (We've been getting to bed around 12 or a little before and getting up at 6:30ish every day so we decided to take a day to rest (what better day than the Lord's Day?). We're going to River of Life Community Church tomorrow before we leave town.

Today was awesome. We drove through the Grand Tetons, then Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful errupt, then we saw a buffalo, a deer, and a bald eagle in her nest. This picture was taken somewhere in Yellowstone at one of the first stops. Lots of cool stuff, but not enough time to write right now...it's bed time.

Fun Canadian fact: The exchange rate is $1.05 Canadian to $1 US, and gas here is about $3.31/gallon, increasing as we go up...

And as they say in Canada, "Good night eh?"

The City of Flowers

Anchorage is called the "City of Flowers" and for good reason. There are flowers everywhere! Especially in hanging baskets, as shown above. I took that picture when we were downtown with my mom.

The next picture was taken at about 9 'o clock at night and the third was taken around 10 or 10:30 pm. As you can see, the sun stays up for a pretty long time. I need to get up some day at 4 am to show how bright the sun is at that time as well. My mom and I had brought sleep masks and wore them for the first two nights, but that was it. They did work well and definitely made everything dark, but my blinds in my apartment are really good at blocking out most of the light so I don't need it.
One thing that I am having to deal with at night is my cat. He sleeps during the day of course and is ready to play at night, like most cats. When I was at my mom's house, he was usually really good at sleeping with me when I went to bed, but would usually wake up at around 2 AM ready to play, and would want to attack me. No problem, because I would just kick him out of my room and close the door. Well, in my little studio apartment my bedroom is the living room, and there is no door to close him out of. The only room with a door is the bathroom. When I get home in the evening I play with him a little, but it doesn't get all his energy out, and he's still a bundle of energy when I go to bed. He usually entertains himself for a while, throwing his toys around and chasing them, and getting on an occasional tare around the apartment. But then, without fail, he turns his attention to me and jumps on me and bites me over and over. I scold him, spray him with water but nothing deters him. The last couple of nights I've ended up locking him in the bathroom so I can sleep. Yesterday morning when I was in my bathroom I looked at the curtains on the window, and saw little holes in the bottom where Max had bit through them! My shower curtain also has holes in one spot where he chewed on it. Argh...he is a brat.

It's pretty hazy out right now because there are more than 60 wildfires currently burning in Alaska. The weather has been pretty warm (for Alaska) and dry so it's been hard for the fire fighters to keep them from spreading. A bunch of clouds came in today, so I'm hoping it will rain soon and give some relief.

Tim and I leave at 2 AM next Monday to go to Phoenix for a day and then on to Texas. Kristen, my matron of honor, and I are going to look at bridesmaid dresses while I'm with her in Phoenix, which I'm excited about. Then we fly home the next morning and will be there two days. At some point while we're there, we are meeting with Wayne, the preacher at Webb Chapel, who is marrying us, for an initial pre-marital counseling session. He has a couple of tests for us to take, that will tell him if there are things he wants to talk to us about.

Thanks for reading and I hope everyone is having a good week!

Viva Mexico

Well, Tim and I booked our honeymoon! We're going to an all-inclusive resort called Sandos Caracol Beach Resort & Spa in Yucatan, Mexica at Playa del Carmen. They were having a really good special and it seemed like an awesome place so we made a reservation. Our plan is to get two separate sets of round trip tickets; one from Anchorage to Dallas, and then from Dallas to Cancun with the return from Cancun arriving hopefully just before our return from Dallas to Anchorage.

I went to a Preschool near my apartment that was hiring to talk to the administrator. They are looking for a lead teacher for the 4-year-old class. It seemed like a nice facility, but I can actually make more money substitute teaching with more freedom. I wouldn't have any vacation time at this school for a very long time. They only get major holidays off, and there is no curriculum, just themes for each week. I will be working on more classes for my master's program this fall so I really would like a job that I don't have to think about when I'm home (unlike full-time teaching). So my plan is to sub and keep applying for teacher assistant jobs in the school district. Subs actually make more an hour than teacher assistants, but of course there are no benefits.

Tonight Tim and I have an all-nighter at the church building with his and another church's youth group. They've done service projects for the last two days. The first night they went on a food scavenger hunt where they split up into teams and went asking people they knew to donate food for the local food bank. Last night was called "Barnabus Night" and I went to help drive, even though I ended up not needing to. We again split up into teams and pooled our money (everyone was asked to bring $5) and had an hour and a half to go out and serve people any way we chose. Our group decided to go to Costco and buy bottled water, snacks, and ziplock bags and put together packages to give out to homeless people. As Tim drove from the store to downtown, the three high schoolers we had and I feverishly put all our supplies in the bags, and had a total 76 bags. We ended up passing out 52 of them. It was a little scary at first, but it was pretty fun once we gave out a few and saw how thankful they were, and some people even asked for them who I wouldn't think would need or want one. Tonight we are taking gatorade and water to a disk golf course to offer them to players and joggers who are there, then going back to the church building to play games and hang out until 9 AM tomorrow.

Yesterday I bought several pieces of furniture for my apartment: coffee table, bookshelf, desk, and TV cart and tomorrow Tim and I get to put them together. Hopefully my place will start to look like a home. :-)

Well, I need to go get ready for tonight, so I'm signing off for now!

Pictures of my apartment have been requested and so even though it's still messy with boxes (I'm a very slow unpacker), here is my new home. It's small, but it has a really nice long closet and a super cute bathroom. I loved the green, and then I added my other two favorite colors, blue and yellow. :-) My bed is just to the left of where I was standing when I took the bottom picture. The one above that is my whole kitchen...sink, stove, fridge. Across from that is a wall. Not much to it, but less space to keep clean, and it's very affordable, and on the first floor, so I'm content.

The weather has been great lately, but today was a hot one...84 degrees! Wow! After Tim got off work we walked over to Outback for an early dinner. I hadn't taken to sips of my water before I gracefully knocked over my glass and spilled water all over the table and onto Tim. Luckily the restaraunt was nearly empty so there was no one to look and stare.

It is slowly sinking in that I am engaged. I'm trying not to freak out about everything I have to do. I have several big decisions made, but it's all the tiny details that are overwhelming. Right now I'm trying to just enjoy being a fiance. (I like that word!).

Well, nothing much else happening, so I guess I'll sign off for now. Thanks for reading!

I'm Engaged!!!

It's finally official! Tim was feeling better yesterday evening, so we went to see fireworks at midnight (because that's when it starts to get relatively dark) and they actually started at about 12:15. We ended up not going to the baseball game, but just drove and walked to the baseball field to see the fireworks. We were sitting on the curb waiting for them to start, and after waiting about half an hour, getting tired and since we had to be up early for church this morning, we decided to walk back to the car and when we made it back, they started. We got out and sat outside and watched them until about 12:35 when I was getting really tired so I suggested we go home. He took me to my apartment and grabbed his backpack which he had put drinks in and said he was going to leave the drinks with me. When we got inside he said that he had something for me and that it was part of my anniversary gift (our one year anniversary was May 22nd), and he took out a large, flat, square box and handed it to me and I sat down on my bed to open it. He kneeled down beside me which was my first clue. I opened the box and it was a photo album with a big daisy on the front (my favorite flower). He had filled it with pictures of our trips and our experiences and had written things in it talking about things we've done and how great it is that now we're in the same state and he hopes it lasts forever. On the inside of the back cover he had put tissue paper and wrote "Lift here" and underneath the ring was taped to the book and it said, "So Amy, will you marry me?" I started getting butterflies as I got closer to the end and knew for sure what was about to happen. I just smiled and laughed and looked at him and he said, "So what's your answer?" And of course I said yes! It was all very sweet and the ring is perfect. So now we can officially announce that we will be married on March 6, 2010. :-)

The Land of the Midnight Sun

The nickname is really true!  The sun does go down at about 11:30 or so, but it only looks like twilight, it doesn't get completely dark.  Then the sun comes back out at 3 something.  

Well, I have a home now!  I got the keys to my new studio apartment yesterday afternoon.  It is really tiny (312 square feet) but it's enough for me!  It's on the first floor, adjacent to the laundry room, has a REALLY long closet in the hall way, and all utilities are paid (including cable TV) except water which is supposed to be around $15/month.  My bed is being delivered this afternoon and I can spend my first night in my new home.  

This week has been pretty fun.  Tim took Monday off and we went to the zoo with my mom.  Tim and I had gone to the zoo when I was here in March, but it was better this time.  First of all it wasn't freezing cold.  Also, we got to see black bears and the polar bears were more active.  After the zoo we drove out to the coast to "Beluga Point" which is just a pull off on the side of Seward Highway where there are telescopes and supposedly Beluga whales (my mom's favorite) feed.  We climbed out on the cliffs there but didn't see any whales.  We got some nice pictures though (which will be posted soon...).  We also went shopping downtown and got lots of souvenirs.  

We looked at prices for whale watching cruises and they were all very expensive so we were going to take a one-hour glacier cruise for a much more reasonable price, and were planning on going today, but Tim got sick last night and is still not feeling well, so we're just going to hang out here and continue setting up my apartment.  Poor Tim was exhausted from his trip and had not had a decent night's sleep since he got back and it caught up to him.  We're just going to let him rest today and get better.  Hopefully he'll feel better by tomorrow night for the fireworks. There's a double header baseball game in town for the "Rookie A" team, the Anchorage Bucks and they're doing fireworks afterwards.

The weather is pretty much perfect here.  The highs are in the mid- to upper-60's. It even got up to 72 one day.  The lows are mid-50's because the sun stays out so long.  Before I came up here I was reading about Anchorage on a website and it said that one of the "unofficial" nicknames for the city is "the hanging basket capital of the world."  It's true!  There are hanging baskets everywhere!  Anchorage is also called, "The city of Flowers" in the summer and "The City of Lights" in the winter.  It's a pretty city all year round!

I tried to upload my pictures from my camera that I've taken so far, but they didn't come out right, so I'll try again later and hopefully be able to post some pictures soon!

The Adventure Has Begun!

I knew moving to Alaska would be an adventure, but I was not anticipating the crazy experience we had even before arriving here.  To start, the lady at the ticket counter at DFW airport almost didn't let us bring Max (my sweet, adorable cat who is loved by everyone) onto the plane.  I gave her the paperwork saying he was healthy and she kept going to the back and then telling us we needed a letter...finally she said a "letter of acclimation" stating the temperatures he can withstand and I politely pointed out that our vet had written at the bottom the range of temperature and it had his signature.  She once again went to the back to talk to the manager, and as the other people were checking in for the same flight to Denver that we were on, I heard that it had been delayed an hour.  This time the manager came out and explained that because it gets so hot they need a letter of acclimation stating which temperatures are ok for the animal, and I pointed to the numbers to which she was referring and then to the signature, and asked, "Is that not enough?"  And she thought about it and left, and we waited some more and finally they told us it was ok.  So after 30 minutes we we finally got our boarding passes, and Max got to go on the plane!  No animals are allowed in the cabin on Frontier airlines so he had to go with the luggage.  

When we got to the gate we found out that our flight was now delayed until 6 0' clock because of weather in Denver.  I looked on my handy-dandy iPhone and saw that there were three thunderstorm watches/warnings for the Denver area and one tornado watch.  They assured us that they had taken care of the connecting flights, and that the one from Denver to Anchorage was also delayed and they were probably going to hold it for us.  Well, at 4:30 or so, they push our departure time back to 7:10!  Isn't flying great?? :-)  At last the plane arrives and we board and as I was watching the men load the luggage onto the plane I see Max's crate!  He was put on the conveyer belt and I see his little head and he licks his nose, and I was very relieved to see that he was ok.

When we land in Denver we find out which gate we need to go to and as we're walking, they announce the final boarding call for our flight and even call our names, so my mom starts running so I do too, and we make it just in time.  This flight was about 5 and 1/2 hours long, and because of all the delays, we didn't get in until 1 AM Alaska time, which is 4 AM Dallas time.  Our bags were the last ones out, and we got a taxi to take us to the church where Tim had left his car for us, we make a stop at the grocery store for some essentials like kitty litter :-) and then go to Tim's apartment.  Tim lives on the 3rd floor, so lugging four suitcases (two of which weigh at least 50 pounds) in three trips up the stairs was a blast!  We get ready for bed, put our sleep masks on (it was dark but not completely by the time we got in bed, and I don't know when the sun came up, but it was as bright as midday when my phone rang at 8 this morning...thank you Melody, by the way ;-P ).  We got to sleep at about 3:30 (6:30 Central Time).  And so ends the first chapter of the Alaska experience.

Today is apartment hunting day!  Hopefully we'll find something soon and I can start moving in. Tim, ironically, is in Texas right now.  He took some of his high schoolers to Galveston for a mission trip to help with hurricane clean up.  He will be back tomorrow night, on the same flight from Denver we had, and hopefully will have better luck with the weather.

Well, time to go get ready for the day and I can't wait to see what God has in store for us!

 

It's Moving Day!

Well, it's finally here!  Moving day!!  I have a mixture of emotions as I am super excited but also anxious and already missing my friends and family.  I just want to say to everyone that I love you and will miss you and hope to hear from you through this blog, Facebook, email or whatever!

God bless! :-)

Because my life is soooo interesting...

My great aunt Sharon asked for this blog, and when have I been known to say no to anyone? This will be the place to come to see updates on my experiences in Anchorage, Alaska! Never in a million years did I think I would be moving to this beautiful state, but here I am! I'm making the move in 16 days! Why, you ask? (Actually, you're probably not asking because everyone who is going to be reading this knows full well why I'm moving) Is it because I love packing and moving and will do it every chance I get? Is it because change is something I crave and openly invite into my life? Not hardly!! I'm moving 4,000 miles away because there's a very special, super wonderful guy who I love very much who lives there named Tim, and he is well worth it! :-)

Mom and I will be flying up on June 26th, and she's going to spend a few days with me helping me find an apartment and get settled. And we're going to go whale watching with Tim that week, which we're super pumped about!! She'll leave on July 3rd, and then Tim and I will fly to Phoenix on the 20th to visit my bestest friend from LCU, Kristen and her husband Adam. Tim's uncle actually lives in Phoenix too, so we'll spend some time with him as well. Then, we leave at the crack of dawn the next day to go to Dallas. We'll go cheer on the Red Sox against the Rangers that night :-) and spend the next day with the fam, and then we're hopping in my car and heading back to Anchorage! Yep, that's right, we're DRIVING all the way from Texas to Anchorage! It'll take about 5 days...Tim has it all planned out and I'm pretty excited. I like road trips, and I'll get to see parts of the country I've never seen, plus we get to spend a night in Calgary! That's pretty cool, I think.

Well, there's the plan for my life for the next couple of months (finding a job will occur in there sometime, hopefully! I'm applying for school secretary and teacher assistant positions every chance I get). Hopefully I'll have some interesting things to write about that you will enjoy reading. If nothing else, I can always post pictures of the gorgeous mountains that I will be surrounded by. :-)

Have a blessed week!