... to a new home at http://lenaloos.com/... I will be posting there from now on! Please come by and follow me on GFC!
Also come check out my posts at Goore's Insider.
So I have been contemplating getting a small tattoo on the inside of my right ankle... This is the art that inspired me... It was the image we used on our bulletin for our church launch last October... It reminds me that my relationship with Toby has deep roots that kept us in the ground through the storm and that by putting God first and working together in our church is what got us through it... I don't want it exactly like this... I want the tree to look a little more bonsai-ish and I am thinking about having my maiden name in kanji incorporated into either the roots or the branches of the tree... Maybe... And either get a waterfall (because my last name is a derivative of the Japanese word for waterfall) as the background or save that for something else if I am ever brave enough to get another... I may not get a background... I have never found anything I wanted to have on me permanently until I found this... And I am going to wait awhile before getting it to make sure it is really what I want... Not sure how long to wait though, three months? Six? A year?
I have been a bit of a slacker in the blog department lately... I just realized that I have only blogged 11 times in the last 2 months (almost, at least since my 100th post). Granted, these last two months have been filled with some exciting things (Bella's arrival, Meeting New Friends A MidTown Friends -Update on that tomorrow, hopefully with pics from tonight's Suite 16 party, My first giveaway, SITS Spring Fling, The Woman's Retreat, Starting My Own Business, A Visit with my Family in LA, and the Most Exciting News of All - Finding out We are Having a Baby!!!) I have had this whirlwind of thoughts and emotions (and hormones, lol) that I have not been able to get down on paper (or blog for that matter - my lappy is still in shambles) but I am going to try to be better about it from now on... I promise! Be expecting some fun photos tomorrow!
My poor laptop (or Lappy as I fondly call it) had open heart surgery last night and like Humpty Dumpty still hasn't been put back together again completely (I tell you, it was like watching my baby being opereated on!) But hopefully it will be up and running later today when Hubby decieds to tackle it again...
So I know you lovely people have been waiting on the edge of your seats for me to announce my big news... Some of you may have guessed already that...
We're expecting!
We have been waiting a bit for this and we are really excited! We wanted to wait until after our first appointment with the OB just to be sure, which is a bonus because it means I have a pic for you!
Please bear with me as my focus in this blog transitions to motherhood (because it's like an extension of my mind, ya know?)
This post has been bubbling around in my head for a couple of weeks now... It started when I was chasing this rainbow (well, I was trying to find its end while driving)... Leave it to an ADD kid to chase rainbows... Maybe I thought I would truely find my hearts desires at the rainbow's end... Who knows...
Be forewarned: I am about to divulge the daily inter-workings of my ADD brain...
If I could have anything I wanted out of life, it would be surprisingly simple...
A plot of land to raise my 4 kids (that I don't have yet), 4 sheep, 2 dairy goats, 2 cute pygmy goats, 2 horses, 4 golden retrievers, and infinite number of chickens on...
Oooo and Chinchillas! I would have about 4 of them too! I suppose I would have to take my dumb fat cats with me... But I am ready for some slightly less neurotic animals...
And I would have a green thumb... Like grow all my own seasonal veggies green... I would take care of all of these kids and animals and land while my dear husband goes into town to work everyday :D...
I think Nanny Goats in Panties is partially to blame for the want of goats... That and the State Fair... They always make me want pets I don't have room for! And goat cheese is good... I'd have to learn to make it...
I want sheep so I can sheer them and spin and dye my own wool (cuz yarn is expensive ya'll!)... Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era... Either that or I have just read Little House on the Prairie far too many times...
I want dogs that will go out and do this with me...
And I have ALWAYS wanted horses... Ever since my Uncle Jack told me that I could "have" his old horse "KnotHead" as long as it stayed at his house in Paridise... I told all my friends at school that I had my very own tresured horse and got really excited the next time we went up to visit... When I got there I ran out to the corral... But my dear KnotHead wasn't there (I had changed his name to something more worthy of a horse of his stature, but I can't remember the name at present)... I heard my dad joking that he had been sent to the glue factory and I cried and cried until my Uncle told me the truth... Death was far less scary when it didn't invole becoming a part of my art kit... I swore off glue for months after that, just on principle... Had they told me what else had horse hoof in it, I probably would be a much healthier person today...
And the chickens, I know they stink but they are just so cute when they hatch and I love the idea of having fresh eggs every day... I told you, I am pretty simple at heart...
Of course if I actually had everything I desire, I would have no time to blog and look up amazing meaningless stuff like this on YouTube...
Anytime I go on a random tangent, my friend Jer starts chanting "Candy Moutain, Candy Mountain"... The song at the end is also my ringtone for him lol...
I have been 25 for 45 minutes now and let me tell you, I am feeling kind of dated... I was watching Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion before heading for bed and I was remembering when I thought their outfits were the coolest fashion statements ever... I also remember listening to New Kids on the block and wallpapering my room with Handon posters...
I hung out with Amy all day (my brother's girlfriend) and I showed her my wedding pictures... I can't believe how young we looked and it was only a year and a half ago! I also can't believe that we were Drew and Amy's ages (respectivly) when we got engaged!
I am hoping this year brings us some good news... Spending time with Amy's kids just makes me long for some of my own! We are working on it, so send your baby making mojo our way, k? I feel like this is going to be our year :)
Ever feel like music sends you signs? Just as I type that last paragraph, Capri by Colbie Callet played on my iPod... Earlier when Amy and I were talking about how much we miss our guys even when they are only away for a couple of days (Drew is at camp and Toby is at home) the song Toby and I danced to at our wedding and I remembered that even though he is far away, he loves me and he is thinking about me... I give props to you military wives out there, you are way stronger than I am...
I am looking forward to tomorrow (today actually), and wishing my hubby could be here with me... But it will be good fun, a lot of our family and friends are meeting us at Disneyland and I know it will be really fun (someday soon I will write about the most magical trip to Disneyland I have had to date)...
Thanks for all your love and support over this past year bloggy friends, it means more to me than you know! (My comment box should be working now, if not won't you leave one on my homepage? Thanks!)
Okay so I promised you guys an update on our interview this morning, and I will get to that, but first I want to tell you a little bit about the ministry we are applying for... FamlilyLife Ministries is based in Little Rock, AR and they are a group committed to helping marriages and families across the US and around the world. Their biggest ministry is an event called Weekend to Remember (which I wrote a little bit about in this post and this post) and I have a special offer for my readers and friends... If you check out the link above and feel like you would like to attend a conference in the coming year, leave me a comment with your e-mail and I will send you the discount code I have for my group. You can go to any conference on any date in any city, as long as you register 10 days prior to the conference, and get an $80 discount. I encourage everyone to go! It is great for a marriage tune up, or just for inspiration! Toby and I were so moved when we attended our Weekend to Remember that we attended a staff opportunity meeting! That's what led us to our hour long interview this morning... ... Which went great! Cliff is such a nice guy... He and his wife are in the process of adopting twins right now! So exciting! Anyway, we talked with him this morning about all of the reasons we feel called to work with FamilyLife ministries (whether it is here at home, or in Little Rock where they are based) and what the process looks like... In the next couple of months we will be busy filling out the application, taking an assessment, and praying about and collecting references. Then, our paperwork will be evaluated by a new person (not Cliff) and we will then possibly be asked to attend a Ministry Preview in Little Rock February 18-22! And by the end of that trip we will be given a Yes, a No, or a Wait by FamilyLife and we will go home and then give them our answer within a week! After that, if God is still calling us to be a part of this ministry, we will attend Training, in Orlando, FL May 2-9 and learn how to raise our support (this ministry is a fully sponsored missionary organization)... In the meantime, we will stay at our jobs until we raise 80% of our support, at that time we will go back to Little Rock to do a house hunting trip and also interview for our specific placements in the office... When we raise 100% of our support we will pick up and move to Little Rock to start our ministry with FamilyLife! This is an exciting journey for us, and we know God has not let us get too comfortable here for a reason. Whether we end up in Arkansas or not, FamilyLife is part of us now and we are so thrilled to have this opportunity!
Is not my friend most of the time, at least not until I warm up to it... Tonight Toby and I were talking about how awesome it would be to live more simply... No debt, living within our means, saving money, finishing school... Even to the point of selling almost everything we own and moving out of the state to someplace less expensive... We prayed about it and now I feel like it is out there... Out of our hands, out of our control... Totally in God's... That is scary to me... I know it shouldn't be, but I don't like to give up control, I am human after all... It is something I struggle with daily... Even putting things in my husband's hands and out of mine scares me... We talked about starting slowly by selling my car (our payment is pretty out of control thanks to Toby's meddling grandfather)... I am wondering if his brother will sell my Civic back to me for the cost of what he has put into it (not much like maybe $400)... His parents bought it from my parents (technically) for $500 for him but since he is going to Europe in December to be with his fiance I am hoping he will think of me before selling it to someone else... If we do decide to do that we need to talk to him soon though... I think I can handle that... Downgrading back to my old car... I didn't love it, but it is just a car... It will get me from point A to point B... And it has been taken good care of, well, except for when I had it :)... Toby and I have a bad habit of starting deep thoughtful discussions at bedtime and my mind starts going on them and I can't sleep... Like now... My head is full of "What if's" as my mom likes to call them... I can't seem to shut it off, so I figured jotting down some of my anxieties here would aleviate them... So far, not so good...
I have been told that I have the gift of teaching, but I have also been told that my ADD may be too great to actually be a conventional teacher. Mind you, I have been an education major for almost 4 years now (I am nowhere near getting my BA or credentials though). I f I am to ADD to teach in a public classroom, would I be able, with the help of other homeschooling parents, to home school my own children? I plan on completing my degree, not sure if I will go through the credentialing process, but I will have the general knowledge needed to teach elementary aged students. I can't really think of a career in which I could use a general education degree, but I know that I want to obtain my BA that I have been working towards for over 6 years now. I have all these ideas about how I would teach unconventionally and still have my students meet grade level standards (although the CA state "standards" are not even at grade level these days, the high school exit exam for example is based on something like 7th grade level knowledge). One example of unconventional learning would be to set up a classroom government when teaching 5th grade history (of course you would need a good sized class), I attempted to student lead this in my 5th grade classroom (surprisingly my teacher allowed me to), but because of my disorganization (come on I was only a 5th grader) and lack of time (we only had an hour per day in this class) it did not get the point across successfully. Another would be to use the game Civilization as a teaching tool for teaching World Civ (I am actually working on a lesson plan for implementing this on the college level for my World Civ instructor this semester). I really like the idea of using the World Wide Web as a virtual assistant in the "classroom" - kids spend 44 hours a week doing "media multi-tasking" (surfing the web, watching tv, playing video games, and listening to music) so they are on it anyway, might as well give them something fun and purposeful to do with it. My generation was one of the first to grow up with home computers (our first was an old Mac, back when they were still reffered to as "Apples," that the school disctric let their teachers (like my mom) take home for the summer so they could learn how to use them. I think I was in 1st or 2nd grade. I remember the only thing it had on it was Print Shop Delux :). My neighbor, who had a PC, made DOS based catsle RPGs. The first computer games I played were Oregon Trail and SimAnt. Both were educational at heart. In Jr. High, the World Wide Web came into our home (after much pleading with my parents). I was very into IMing. While it was a bit of a distraction, I think my generation has benifited from having such an instant link to people and information, but it has also harmed us. Cyber crime is prevolent, which was not really something that our parents worried about when they first heard the delightful sounds of "You got mail" chiming from our computers every few minutes, at the time their biggest concern was that we were tying up the only phone line. However, many groups have been devoted to keeping children safe on the web today and keeping it for what it is intended for, gaining knowledge and staying in touch. Besides, as an adult who grew up as the Internet did, I know what dangers lie lurking in cyberspace and I am better equipped to keep my kids away from them then my parents were when I was learning how to use the computer at a much faster rate then they were (as kids often do). As I get older and technology advances, I know I will soon be in the place my parents were with new wonders and dangers out there waiting for my kids. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with everything. Wow, I really got off on a tangent there. I guess the main point I was trying to get across is that I am not sure where my future will take me, but I really feel like teaching is in it somewhere, no matter if it is conventional or not. I'd like to hear from you homeschooling parents out there. How much of a role does the net play or will it eventually play in your homeschool program?
