Feelin' crafty...

We had a bit of a problem in our media room upstairs:

The black curtains from the apartment just weren't long enough for these LARGE windows. What's a thrifty, lazy girl to do?

Buy some cute, coordinating fabric and fun fuzzy ball trim and HOT GLUE those bad boys on! Yep, this fabulous "after" photo was brought to you by fabric, trim, and my trusty hot glue gun! Lest you think I was smart enough to think of this myself, let me point you to the Nester. She does all sorts of window "mistreatments". They're great!

Apparently, I was in a super-crafty mood this weekend because I also created a blog to display my paintings. Who knows? Maybe you need a painting for your house, your office, your friend's birthday, etc., and I'm the one to do it! LOL.

Some days I really enjoy where I work...

It's really too bad that so many of them are like yesterday, where the teachers go, but the kids do not. ;) Instead of being off yesterday like Deanna and Megan, I had a Staff Development Day. Fun, right? Well...actually it was! Our administrators put us into teams with people we don't get a chance to work with often, and then each team was given a clue. We had to figure out the clue, head to that location, and complete an education-related task (Amazing Race-style). When we completed each task, we received our next clue...AND a recipe ingredient. There were ten clue-related tasks total, but task #11 was...wait for it...BAKING COOKIES with all of our ingredients in the school's brand new culinary lab!!! It was freakin' awesome! My team made chocolate chip, but other groups made pumpkin, snickerdoodle, chocolate peanut butter chunk, etc. The whole staff met back up at 3:00 for a debriefing/survey/cookie sampling. Good times. :)

Hmmm...what else is new? Oh, Deanna got a dog, Lola. You can read all about her on Deanna's blog. I linked to it in the first paragraph. She is pretty great, and that is saying a lot since I am not really into pets. Also new: I am playing volleyball again on our staff team. Today was the first day I was able to play. We lost our first match, but we won the second match which just happened to be against the other Academy team. It was SO FUN!!! I was a little anxious about playing at first, but I am so glad I put myself out there. What else, what else? Most of the house is decorated/liveable, so if you're in the area, please call us up! It has been really great to be able to have people over for dinner and such.

I guess that's about it for now. I am still updating my "25 Things" list, so if you haven't checked it lately, you can find it here. Enjoy!

OMG...I am so overwhelmed!

It's official.

This is the story of my life.

I feel like I am constantly overwhelmed by something. Right now, it's school. Teaching a new curriculum (9th grade Pre-AP English) is kicking my butt. Since the house-buying lasted all summer, I wasn't really able to plan much before school started. (And let's face it: I had other things I wanted to do! It was summer, after all.) I feel like a slacker because I am totally relying on the other 9th grade teachers for lesson plans. I am having trouble convincing myself that it is worthwhile for me to spend time creating new lessons when I am not even sure that I will teach freshmen again next year, though. And I'm tired when I go home. Woe is me.

There are also homeowner-ish things I need to take of. For instance, I painted my bedroom this weekend. I could have graded papers, but I didn't. I painted instead. :) I also need to hang curtains. Three or four sets, I believe. And the laundry...I always seem to be behind on laundry. Geez.

Will I ever be caught up??

ABC's of Summer (at Tiff's request)

A: Aunt Tina helped us move, but she kept us entertained with all of her inappropriate (but hilarious!) sayings.
B: Bahamas! See post below.
C: Camera. I will be using it soon to post pics of the house. I promise. One day.
D: Dad & Sherry came to visit me for the first time in the three years I have lived in TX.
E: Everybody and their momma; that's who I feel like I see every time I go home to Columbus! Love it. :)
F: Facebook. Summer provided LOTS of time to catch-up on there!
G: Grandparents. Mine are the best; both sets sent $ to help with house-buying needs.
H: Homeowner! I am one. Yay!
I: icanhascheezburger.com; one of my favorite websites ever.
J: Jessica, my cousin, came out here to help us move. Love. her. :)
K: Kalamazoo. Quite possibly the one place I didn't make it to this summer. LOL.
L: Lisa's birthday dinner @ Taco Diner was the first true summer activity.
M: My mom. She brought Aunt Tina and Jessica out here with her as move-in help, cleaned the apartment and the house, and bought several housewarming gifts. :)
N: New roommate. Megan has officially moved in! Yay!
O: Over. Sad, but true; summer is almost over for 2009. :(
P: Potter, Harry. Movie #6 was pretty darn good, but only because I went to see it with Mrs. Patsy and Mary Beth! :)
Q: Quitting "Jon & Kate Plus 8". What took me so long?!
R: Refrigerator! My first grown-up, home-owner purchase.
S: Swimming pool. Between the apartment and the new house, I have spent lots of my summer around the pool!!
T: Tutoring at HLC. Not often, but I still did it!
U: Umbrella. Can somebody please tell me where I can find a freakin' outdoor umbrella for my patio table?!
V: Victory. After 3 failed attempts, I finally succeeded with House #4.
W: Wedding #6! See post below.
X: Xylophone spines. Yep. See them for yourself at Ripley's Believe It or Not in Grand Prairie.
Y: Yard sale. Hopefully this weekend.
Z: Zebra print cleaning gloves. Just bought them today. Maybe they will inspire me to keep my house clean. :)

Boo. I forgot to blog last week.

Oh, well. At least I posted two entries the week before that. Surely that counts for something. Anyway, during my absence, I finally bought a house. Pictures later...when I've recouperated from moving and everything is all set up and nice and pretty and picture-worthy. :)

Hysterical!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Anybody know if I can get away with this at Fairview?!

Eliana Noah

Last Saturday, I attended a memorial service for a co-worker's stillborn baby. Amanda and I used to tutor together at HLC quite a bit, and she and her husband, Charlie, lived in our apartment complex until last month. It had been a while since I had seen her though, and I was shocked to hear she had been pregnant. I was heartbroken to hear such sad news about such sweet, godly people.

It was an honor to be present at the service. Two other co-workers and I went together. Although we were several rows back and to the right, I could see Amanda during the service. I watched her whole-heartedly sing "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" and "It Is Well With My Soul" with the rest of us. And after her husband and father-in-law spoke, I watched her sing "You Are God Alone" and "Blessed Be Your Name"; it was obvious she meant every word, even though her pain is real and great and deep.

After the first two songs, two members of the youth group read Isaiah 55:8-11 and Lamentations 3:22-24. (Charlie is the church's youth pastor.) Charlie made his way up to speak next. Even though they were about halfway through the pregnancy, their baby was not developing on schedule, and they never got to find out if they were having a boy or a girl. Charlie explained this when he explained the name they had chosen: Eliana, a girl's name, and Noah, a boy's name. Eliana means "He has answered our prayer" in Hebrew, and Noah means "comfort". What a testimony that name is! Although God did not "answer their prayer" in the way they had hoped, God still answered. In His infinite wisdom and perfect plan, He knew what He was doing when he formed Eliana Noah. He knew what He was doing when He took Eliana Noah home. And in knowing that, Amanda and Charlie are comforted.

Charlie also read a letter he had written to their baby. He spoke of all the things he wanted to teach her if she had been a girl and of all things he would have taught him if he were a boy. He also spoke of what he would have taught his child either way. He wanted to teach him/her about the goodness of our Lord, and how great He is, and how He is near to us in the good times and the hard times, and how God created everything, and how He had sent his son to die for our sins. He wanted to teach his child how he/she could depend on God for anything and everything.

Instead, Eliana Noah has reminded Charlie and Amanda of these truths because Eliana Noah knows God in a way we cannot...in a way we can only hope for...until we are there, too.