2008

It is 10:08, 2 hours till the start of the new year. I am very much looking forward to all that this coming year holds for me. Usually I enter a new year having no real anticipation of what will change but this year is obviously quite different. Only 15 more days till Anna Claire is due (+ or-) I am looking forward towards being a mom! I know it will be harder than anything I have done to this point, but also more rewarding. It will be exciting to see how life in general and internal changes due to this one little person. I know this year will fly by but I pray that I will take the time to ponder and enjoy it all. Further bringing on excitement about the upcoming year is the knowledge that every year is so different. I look forward to seeing all that this year holds.

Pregnancy Pictures

These are pictures from Thanksgiving weekend. My family was up to celebrate the holidays. We went to the Opryland Hotel and had a great time looking at all the Christmas decorations. 6 more weeks to go.

William Glasser

Today I had the privilege to sit under the teaching of Dr. William Glasser. The Tennessee Counselors Association hosted him at the pre-conference today. He is the name most associated behind Choice/ Reality Therapy. As a student this is one of the therapies that stuck out to me, made sense and seemed the most user friendly for short term counseling. Now that I am a school counselor I use the basic ideas with students on a daily basis. Helping students see the choices in life that are always available to them, no matter what situation they are in, is a useful tool! Many students forget they have choices. I love to see how empowered students can feel when they realize they have a choice/ power in the midst of so many mandatory things that are handed down to them by parents, teachers, jobs, and school rules. They can always choose how they will respond in these situations. Dr. Glasser's presentation was both informative and comical. Not high energy or truly "dynamic." However, he does have a great sense of humor that kept a 4 hour session interesting. I felt very fortunate to be able to actually sit under his teaching. To hear the person behind the therapy somehow gives it even greater credence.

29 weeks-The Past and Present

Today I am 29 weeks pregnant. Overall, I must say it has been a pretty smooth ride so far. I am so thankful for this! There have been a few bumps in the road but nothing serious.
Physically, my health has been pretty good. I have had very little sickness. The worst of it has been some killer headaches. I also found out last week that I was anemic. So, iron pills were added to my daily diet. This is honestly the 1st day in a while that I have had some energy. It feels like it is flying by and Anna Claire will be here before we know it. She is moving strongly all the time now. I LOVE to feel her little jabs. Lately there have been less jabs and more large strong movements. Weight gain wise is great. 9 lbs. I think this is one of the funny things about pregnancy-any other time I would have been upset over 9 lbs in 29 weeks. Now that seems great!
Emotionally, this journey hits me in stages. Excitement has been from day one that we knew. However it has grown and still developed as I have realized more and more the changes that are occurring in our lives. I get excited over all the future moments that are to come. It is fun having a January baby because it is easy to think about how old she will be around different times in the coming year-The start of football season in 08-she will be about8 months old. (We already bought her an Alabama outfit to wear) December of next year, she will be crawling/moving around in various ways around the Christmas tree as a 12 month old. There are also times where it is completely overwhelming to think that I am about to have this responsibility for the rest of my life. I sit in meetings with parents and kids and either thing " O God, please don't let it be like that" or " I hope I have a good relationship like this one." But, I have come to also realize that be it a "good " or "bad" child or parent. There is always an amount of love that is amazing. Even if it is misdirected. I have looked at several parenting books and every one is so different in what they think is needed. I guess that is where prayer and some good common sense comes in. I am sure there will also be many calls for support/ advice.
Soon we are going to start on her nursery. This will be quite a project but fun as well. I was blessed with an awesome deal on her bedding! I went into Pottery Barn Kids just to look for ideas. It turns out they were having a Huge sale and I bought everything for $55. This was amazing because it normally would have cost $275. I love that it is simple and contains many colors.
We have also been blessed with a great shower from my people in Atlanta and some other family friends (I'll post about them later) who decided to bless us. We have received alot of things on our registry but also some other great things that were not on there, that will be wonderful for us. I feel so loved and blessed by this amazing outpouring of love from everyone for us! There are still some things we would like but nothing we can't live without.
Well I am off to bed. I have to give the ACT tomorrow morning at the school. It is an early morning but... you make great money to stand there for 4 hours!

Anna Claire Show and Tell Time-Coming Home

This is Ann Claire's coming home outfit. Robb and I had a fun time picking it out right after our ultra sound told us we would be having a girl. We wanted something soft that was not all pepto pink. I love the cute little hat. That day I really could have spent a fortune. It was so fun to pick this stuff out for our baby! The outfit is a soft fleece, perfect for a January baby. Robb found the bear hat. I know......she will probably spit up on everything on the way home, but at least she started out the trip clean and cute.

A Sweet Baby Girl

I am so excited. We found out this afternoon that we are having a little girl. It is amazing how one little word can create soo many thoughts and feelings. Her name is going to be Anna Claire or Clare. not sure on the spelling yet. Also at the ultrasound we found out the placenta previa has cleared up. Thank God! That relieves sooo many worries. After the ultrasound we went and bought her going home outfit. It was so fun to pick it out! I will post pictures of the ultrasound and new outfit later. Fun times in the Blackaby house!

What is It? Vote Boy or Girl

On Thursday, Aug 30th we get to find out what gender Baby Blackaby is. We are both very excited about this! For me all of this will take on a more realistic feel after knowing what we are having. I just recently started feeling it move around ( you would think that would be enough) but actually knowing what it is going to be will more concrete. So..... what is your vote? Boy or Girl?

The Summer Review

I am so sad that summer is over! Actually it's been over for 2 weeks now but I am just now stopping to think about it. For it to be such a short summer it was a great one! Here's a review of the highlights.
1. Week in Virginia: I had a wonderful time with my friend Shirley, her husband David, and their daughter River. We visited all around the cool city of Richmond, caught up on life, received great advice about pregnancy and motherhood, and saw their new house. She is one of those great friends that you feel like you had coffee with the day before even though you really have not seen each other for 2 years.
2. 4th of July: My family all came up for the week of the 4th. It was such a fun visit! We ate ribs, took some tours of Nashville attractions, and went to see some of the best fireworks that I have ever seen. On the 5th my mom and sister when to Kentucky to look at houses / Asbury for my sister. She is going so seminary there in the fall. My dad and brother stayed 2 more fun filled days. We ate a variety of the international foods found here in Nashville. Indian, Jamaican, Greek and Fish Camp. It is rare that I get to hang out with just my dad and Jonathan so that was a nice treat. Robb and my dad had a fun time doing some projects around the house. I hated to see them leave!
3. Vacation: Robb and I had a great time on our vacation! We spent the 1st night in Lexington. We enjoyed some of the local fare and had a great time at a downtown music night- local guys but still community time. The Horse Park was the the goal for the next day. It rained on us the whole time but we did not let that stop us from taking in all the sights. Both of us have always loved horses making this a real treat. We even got to see the Man of War statue- which I have always wanted to see after being a large Walter Farley fan and reading his book on Man of War. That afternoon we headed to Louisville. When arriving we drove around and saw some of Robb's history. We ran by the church Robb's dad pastored, their old parsonage, and the high school Robb went to while there. I loved seeing these places and hearing the stories about their life there. We stayed right downtown at the lovely Hyatt. Right next to the hotel is a big gathering music place on Friday nights. The Violent Femme ended up being the act that night. Not that I honestly know a whole lot about their music but I know the name and it was cool to be part of that atmosphere. Saturday was the highlight of the trip with the surprised ability to go see the Police who were performing at Church Hill Downs. We had a great time at the concert! It was such a treat! Sunday we just hung out and then to find some local bookstores. We ended up going to this really cool section of town that had lots of unique stores and restaurants. Definitely a place to check out on another trip.
Work started back the day after we got home and I have been working ever since. It is a tough time of the year for School Counselors (at least at the High School level.) I have worked late almost every night these past 2 weeks. No fun! But everything must be ready for the kids to come back on the 1st. Hopefully it will all work out.

10 weeks and counting

Today I am 10 weeks pregnant. What an exciting time in life. Yesterday we went to our 2nd Dr. appointment and got to hear the heartbeat. That is really an awe inspiring moment!! I have been so relieved each time we have left the Dr. appointments and they have said eveyrthing looks great. I have been pretty blessed so far and have not felt to aweful terrible. I have had a good bit of off and on nauesea but it has not been constant or with many following results. Thank goodness. Prior to being pregnant I have only thrown up once since middle school. Now I can say twice.We were going to ask Mike McMullin to be the labor coach but based off his last blogg I guess that will not workout like We had hoped. Just kidding!!

It's the End of the Year As I Know It

Thank goodness I have reached the end of the school year. I have worked my extra time and starting Monday am officially free. This is part of my love for working in the world of education. You may not get paid alot but.. few get the sense of satisfaction that educators get from coming to the end of a year. I would have a hard time working in a job where there was not definite end/ marking of an accomplishment (survival) to each year. I have many plans of what I am going to do during this time.
Week 1- Clean/straighten the house/yard sale shopping/sleeping/ watching movies, teaching my dogs to behave, and going to the doctor to hear the heartbeat.- Emma Alexander is coming to visit on the weekend. Fun times!!
Week 2- Going to VA to see my friend Shirley and her new baby.
Week3- Another week of hanging out.
Week 4-2 days of work and then my parents are coming to visit for a couple of days.
Week 5-2 days of work then vacation to Louisville with Robb. Camping and then staying in a nice hotel for a couple of days.
Then is is back to work. But with a fresh start, new kids to guide, and new problems to overcome.

A Great Adventure

This past week Robb and I decided that we would go camping on Friday. As a teenager I loved going camping!! (of course we had a pop up camper- which is a lot different than a tent) anyway... I love the outdoors, nature all around, the smell of campfires, the sound of people living in community. When we married we registered for a tent and air mattress but in our two years of marriage ( our anniversary was last Monday) we had not gone camping yet. Friday after work Robb came to meet me at work with the 2 dogs and we set out to find a place to lay our heads. The 1st place we went to had no open spots, apparently now days you can reserve a spot on the internet. (who knew??) I knew there was another state park about 30 minutes from where we were so we set out once again. Half way there Layla got car sick all over Robb's seats. Yuck!! After taking care of the mess we hit the road again. We got to the park and found a great spot. It was exciting to set up the tent, and begin the fire.-The fire starting was not a process without frustration!! We knew how it should work but- however it does not "only takes a spark to get a fire going." We had a great dinner. I learned in my teen years how to make Hobo Meals that cook on the coals of the fire. We loved sititng around the fire, relaxing and talking. the great thing about camping is you can go to bed when it is dark. This is when the night started to go down hill for me. The dogs would not get quiet. They were a little nervous about sleeping out in the wild and barked at every noise! Everytime I would almost be asleep one of the two would start barking. It also grew pretty cold! The low that night was 46. We had plenty of sleeping bags but somehow ended up sharing one spred out. Everytime I would try to cover my face with the sleeping bag to keep it warm, I would somehoe uncover Robb's feet. He had no idea why I was pulling and would cover his feet again, pulling it off my face. And while air mattress are better than the ground, it is not my comfy bed. Needless to say, when the sun came streaming in at 5:30 am, I was not ready to get up and meet the excited dogs. I was in a bad mood!! But after walking the dogs, packing up, and heading to McDonalds, life looked much brighter. We will do it again but have learned some valuable lessons. Hopefully our next camping adventure will contain the fun parts of Friday along with maybe a little more sleep.

Mother's Day Reflections

I am so thankful for the wonderful mothers I have. Mothers?? Yes.. I have many women in my life who I consider to be mothers. I am truly blessed with my special mother who game birth to me, raised me, cleaned my dirty diapers, taught me to love God, and has become one of my greatest friends. My mom has set such an example of what is means to be a strong godly woman. I have also been blessed to have a wonderful mother in law. I am thankful that God blessed me with her! I love the times we get to spend at her house and am thankful for her support and love. I have feeling that there will also be many lessons learned from this added mother. She is a women of God who raised a wonderful son! Aside from these 2 moms, God has blessed me with many women who I see like "mothers." These women have sowed into my life in many ways. I have stayed at their homes, eaten at their tables, and probably added my share of dirt and ware and tear on their houses. Many of these women probably have no real idea of how much they impacted me. I don't send flowers or cards to these women but I am thankful that God placed so many wonderful people in my life. So many kids never have one positive impacting person, and I have been blessed with more than I can count. A Big Thank You to all these women!!

Copy Cat

I loved Kim A. blog like this so... yes I went to the same site and did my own. I like mine to.

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A Girl and Her Grill

These are our wonderful grills. We started with the small charcoal one on the left. While I love the way it smells while cooking, it is soo hard to get the coals just right. It often falls onto two extremes- way tooo hot or cold because I did not put enough coals on. I have spent 30 minutes before just trying to get the dang coals to light... moisture is not the friend of charcoal. To the right of the picture is our gas grill that we bought during a winter clear out at a electronics store. I LOVE to grill food on this and if I might say so, am quite good at grilling. I used to grill just burgers and chicken but now have moved into the realm of steaks, veggies, pork chops etc. I will go further ( fish ,lamb chops, ribs, etc) these will one day be conquered as well. To be a good griller it is important to start with a good marinade and to keep an eye on the time. I used to just plop something on the grill and then check back in a little while,often have something come out burnt or undercooked. I now know more exact times.-due to a fabulous grilling book This helps tremendously in getting a steak (or whatever you are cooking) to be done at which ever level of doneness you like. Grilling is a great lowfat way of cooking. We grill rain or shine, hot or cold outside. It helps that it is under a covered carport, but I grew up helping to hold an umbrella over my dad as he grilled out in the rain. Nostalgia always seeps in when I grill. As I just mentioned I always helped my dad to grill. I would stand there and talk to him while he was cooking. We would talk about all sort of things and often he would tell me a grilling tip /technique in the midst of our conversation. Here is a little recipe for marinade that I just love.
Mojo Marinade
1/2 cup of Orange Juice
2 tablespoons of lime juice
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper.- place all together and marinade the meat for at least 1 or 2 hours.
Do you have any recipes that you enjoy?

What a Week!!

It has been a hectic week that has been full of unexpected joys and frustrations. #1 Tuesday we went to the Blue Bird Cafe to hear Phil Keaggy, Randy Stonehill, and two other guys. This was a great night of beautiful music! However for our normal routines getting to bed at midnight was rough. We were looking forward to a slow day on Wednesday. We were very excited about Wednesday because we were getting our new washer. The old walked across the floor several feet with every load and sounded like a helicopter was in our house. We bought the new one on clearance from Lowes. It was a great deal and make life much nicer. As I was pulling dinner out of the oven, Robb was putting in the first load with anticipation of a quiet dinner. We decided to quickly go change clothes before sitting down to dinner. When we came back into the kitchen there was in inch of water on the floor. The picture above is me sweeping water out of the door. After getting the water out, we had every towel in the house sopping wet and the clothes that had been in the washer were also wet. We spent the rest of the night at the laundry mat and returned home exhausted. Thursday night was dedicated to begining the poject of ripping up the damaged floor. We had one of the couples from our church over to help with this. I really did not feel like entertaiing but ened up enjoying being with these sweet people!! On Friday we went to a Jewish temple with a guy that Robb works with. It was a wonderful experience. I grew up often going to a Messianic temple in Atlanta. The entire night was very inspiring. Maybe a future blogg will highlight some of the thoughts that were spurred while there. Again- not an early night. Saturday (today) was our first Angel Food pick up day. We had to meet the truck at 5:45am to load food and then take it to our church. It was early!! But it did not take long to do. So we came home and took a nap before going back to the church to actually give the food out. It was fun and has the potential of being a great ministry oppertunity! Robb and I decided to take advantage of the tax free day and went to Opry Mills. We had a great time shopping but came home to one of our puppies having a stomach issue while she was in her kennel. YUCK!! The smell was aweful. We ened up having to give Lili a shower. It took both Robb and I to get her clean. Thank goodness we have a full shower. In the end Robb and I were covered with hair but Lili is now clean. Needless to say I am glad this week is over!!! In looking at it, it could have been alot worse!! At least the washer is not on top carpet. It will take us a week to get the new one fixed but, this will be a good excuse to go read at a laundry mat, which will take me back to college days. fun times!! Hopefully this coming week will be a little less exciting!

A Different Life

I am sitting up wishing I could go back to sleep. Yes... I said back to sleep. If you look at the time it is 11:03 p.m. When you get up at 5:30am and your husband gets up at 4:00am, late nights are no longer an option. This is an odd change in life for me. I have never been an early to bed/early to rise person. I truthfully love late night. I am always more thoughtful during this time, maybe that is why I often have trouble sleeping. Life has settled into some sort of routine. Somedays I love this and others I long for the excitment of not know when someone was going to knock on my door, who it would be,and why they would need me. I lived the previous 8 years of my life like this. 11pm was always still early in the night. Many a dorm meeting started at 11. It is funny to think that I am trying to go back to sleep and that tomorrow will be hard to get through because I have not slept 7-8 hours. I miss being an RD. It was a sweet time in life. Maybe because the lack of routine ( and stress )had become comfortable. I hope that our time in Nashville will grow into this sense of belonging/knowing ones role and purpose. I sit here and try to remind myself to look for the beauty in the mundane... i have a roof over my head-that is a blessing!! I have two cute dogs.. i have a wonderful husband... I can drive to my family's house- thank goodness I do not have to fly... we live in a cool city-we could live in the middle of no where..I have a TV with cable-growing up we never had cable. i have a dish washer- it may be loud but it still works. So many more things to be thankful for!!! Maybe if I keep this list going in my head, I will be able to drift off to sleep.

The Case of the Missing Hair

I started this post out this was because I used to love Nancy Drew Books and a mystery was always fun to figure out. During spring break I lost 10 inches of hair in a fatal cut. It was a little traumatic but now I love my new style. I did this for Locks of Love. This is a great organization that takes donated hair (10 or more inches) and create wigs for kids with cancer. The great thing about human hair is that they can swim in it, wash it, and curl/style it. It helps lessen some of the emotional pain that kids, who are dealing with cancer, experience. It was hard to loose 10 inches, I can't imagine if it was all of my hair. I will post picture later of the new hair cut... but there are not currently any that I like.

Update on Spring Break Weeks

This time has not gone exactly as planned in the list I mentioned earlier but it has been a lovely time. I started out the week with the new addition to the family "Lili." It took several days for any sort of peace to come back to the house after this. Layla- the schnauzer- was not happy at all. There were several days of war. In order for there to be any peace, walking had to occur (for long distances and often occurences) I walked them 2 miles in the morning and then when Robb got home we walked another 2-3 miles. Tired puppies are quite puppies :) They are now getting along a lot better and actually tore up something together. I guess you have to take the good with the bad. I did get a chance plant fowers. They dress up our front porch. I am excited to continue doing this throughout the spring!
We had a wonderful visit from Robb's mom and sister this weekend! We went shopping, ate Indian, Greek, and at a Fish Camp restaurant. It was so nice to have them here! This coming week holds for me a trip to Atlanta and then on to Cleveland. I am looking forward to both!

We're adding to the family!!

The time has finally arrived for us to add another member to the family. We have been anticipating this for several weeks. We are going to pick up our new Airedale today. We are getting her from an Airedale rescue group. She is 8 months old and named Lili. We have been looking at this breed since last fall. This breed is known for intelligence and loyalty. They are great with children.One breeder we talked with shared with us a story about one of their Airedales guarding a glass front door when their 3 year old child wanted to open it for a stranger. It would not move until an adult came and then it calmly got out of the way. We are not sure how Layla feels about the new dog... but I feel confident that it will take some adjustment but then they will be fast friends. These pics are Lilli.

Ummm.. That's Not What I Signed Up For!!!

For the past four days at work I have been entering in class request for all of 520+ students that are assigned to me. This is a pretty monotonous task. The average amount of classes entered in for each student is 10-12. Meaning I have approximately entered in 5200 request. During the boringness of each day I have had moments of laughter from the comments that were often written on the sheets to "clarify" what the individual ( actually the parents) wanted. Examples-"please notice the rigor of the classes requested and be sure to spread them out evenly between the semesters" ( side note- we are on the block system- each student takes 4 classes in the fall and 4 new ones in spring-much like college) "please do not change any class written down without calling me (the parent) and receiving permission," "I can get my kid through high school if you will place every class in the order that I tell you to."
Many times I honestly laughed because this system just does not work exactly like that, there are too many variables. Yes, we try to help but.. school is similar to life and just does not always work like planned. Conflicts: We have tons of classes listed that we do not currently have teachers for. Some classes are only offered once and interfere with another class, etc.
Driving home today I thought about how many times in my life that I wish I could, and probably do, ask or demand that God spreads out the "rigor" of my life... It would be great if the stress level could be balanced at a steady level that I could handle! I want to tell God, "If you will do things my way, I will be a successful Christian and not mess up." I also thought about the classes many of the students requested. Knowing my students decently well at this point, I saw some students that requested classes that going to cause huge struggles for them. They have no real concept of the difficulty level of the class the requested.I placed those students in the challenging classes because it will cause them to grow- even if they do not keep an "A" average while in the class. I asked myself driving home how many times does this happen in my life. I ask for something and then get in the middle of it and feel like I can barely keep my head above water. I have to remember that there is strength that comes through these challenging times. Being a counselor is one of these areas for me right now. It often is extremely stressful! I could do something that keeps a kid from graduating from high school. I am not counseling as much as I would like to. I probably counsel more parents than kids. which is odd because I often do not have the "right" answer that is going to solve problems that have usually been there for years and I have do children of my own- so I cannot truly understand how these parents feel.- as much as I want to understand. I keep reminding myself that i am growing as a counselor and personally through this. I also remind myself that this semester is easier than last semester and hopefully next year will be even better. I also try to remind myself that it could be alot worse!!!! Whenever things like this get be down I try to think of a situation that would make the circumstances even worse. Example- I could have 3 other counselor to work with that are all hateful towards me. ( I really work with 3 awesome co-workers that allow me to vent and ask 100 questions everyday.) Okay... so I have digressed into a blog about my job and frustrations that this sometimes holds for me. thanks for reading if you made it to the end. Please do keep me in your prayers. It is hard.

You Are an Excellent Cook

You're a top cook, but you weren't born that way. It's taken a lot of practice, a lot of experimenting, and a lot of learning. It's likely that you have what it takes to be a top chef, should you have the desire...

Are You A Good Cook?

Spring Break is a Coming

I am soo ready for spring break! The next week will feel like a year. I will be off for two weeks. Part of that time I am going to Clevagas to hang out and see old friends. Who knows where the wind will take me after that. .. It feels funny to go to Cleveland for part of spring break, but I am very much looking forward to fellowshiping with all down there and relaxing.
List of things to do:
* Sleep in as long as I want- everyday but Sundays.
* Spend one day in my PJ''s- while reading and watching movies ( not at the same time)
* Eat each meal with a different friend while in Cleveland
* Plant some flowers in our yard...I am not sure if I have a green thumb or not- this will be a fun experiment!
* Clean out my closets!!
*Explore more of Nashville
*Take naps
I think that is a good enough list for now. I'll report back how much of this list actually goes as planned

A Whole New World

This Saturday Robb and I went to the Nashville Gun Show. Robb's brother works at a gun shop and thus was at this show, so we went. I knew that I had entered a whole new world when walking in the parking lot I had to do a double take at a man carrying a large gun in broad daylight with no deer around. Once inside there were men ( and women) carrying guns all over the place. Guns of ALL shapes, sizes and purposes. When you come in the door you have to take the ammo out of the gun you are carrying in but... I am really not sure what the point is when there is ammo being sold inside everywhere. While talking with Keith.. I quickly came up with plan for hiding if one of these people decided to unleash some pent up aggression. I would have been okay if all of the guns were clearly hunting rifles... that makes sense to own. But, many were clearly not to be used to hunting animals.... they would have blown any animal to bits. What then is the purpose of owning an expensive weapon that you should not use? The entire afternoon was a cultural learning experience ( it seems like I am having a lot of those lately). There was every type of person there... young, old, a old man with a large dog collar and chain on his neck, and many good ole' boys. When we left several hours later... I was overall less bothered by the whole experience and eventually walked away from the table that I had designated as the hiding place. We even talked with Keith about teaching me gun safety/ shooting practice just to take away the "fear" aspect of guns. I do not like to be afraid of anything- this leading to the interest in learning about it. We shall see how this goes.

Kim Blackaby

Kim Blackaby -- [adjective]: Extremely extreme! 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Enjoyed Movie

Robb and I had a chill out night the other day and rented a hilarious movie!!! Before I recommend it let me offer this little disclaimer... there is Strong language in it. We were not quite expecting that but were so taken in my the otherwise interesting story line that we did not let that deter us. Are you on the edge of your seats wondering "What movie???" We rented Little Miss Sunshine. It is a great movie about a messed up family and how they make it through life in spite of a variety of crappy situations. We laughed hard throughout the movie!! There are many unexpected turns to the movie and just when you think you have the writers plot figured out it takes a twist. If you can stand the "f" word used frequently, you will enjoy this movie. It is one of the funnest movies I have seen in a long time.
I think I loved it because my own family's life experiences were often odd and challenging- albeit not nearly as odd as this- nothing seemed to come easily for us. However, my family never allowed the disappointments of life to put an end to whatever we were trying to do. I think that is something a lot of families miss in today's life. Resiliency. I see soo many trying to make things perfect for their children/family. If everything is not perfect they break down and stomp out of life- quitting. I love that this family keeps going in the midst of many obstacles and hope that one day when we have a family that we can teach our kids to not expect perfection out of life and to know how to keep going when things are not how we imagine them or want them to go. It is kind of like teaching kids how to learn and not just giving them the facts.

Moments of Shock in a Backwards Town

Odd is how the day ended but it started out with the potential of complete boredom. Today I took 2 students from my high school to the Academic Decathlon. This was an all day competition at a local small university. On my way there I was pretty frustrated with having to spend a Saturday basically working. I was anticipating a day of boredom- the activities of the day were watching students take tests on a variety of subjects. I came prepared with work. Little did I know what awaited. At the university there was a room on the 2nd floor that was filled with a variety of stuffed animals of all kinds. As one kid put it, "There is a stuffed zoo upstairs." The representatives of the school were quite proud. I was disgusted!! There had to be over a hundred different animals including zebras, lions, elephant tusks, skins of all kinds, etc. What happened to conservation? Can we say poaching? I was truly shocked by the display of animals. Each had a plaque of when and where the animal was killed. What kind of education is being presented here? 2nd oddness/ disturbing moment.. Robb came up for lunch and because I was able to leave while the students were actually testing, we went and walked around the small town center and went into an antique store. About half way in the store Robb tells me to look up. Low and behold there is a huge Nazi flag hanging from the ceiling. We were both soo rattled. Definitely not what you expect to see.. In fact I do not think I have ever seen one in real life. What would posses someone to do this? While walking out of the store i kept thinking " should I go and rant and rave to someone?" I did not do this... we just left quickly. Weird stuff!!

Discipline

Over the past couple of weeks I have been feeling pressed to get more disciplined in my life. The past three years were full of discipline. Every minute as an RD and student was pretty much consumed with something that I was doing or needed to do. I feel like after we left Cleveland/ Lee.. I went in a time of not wanting to do anything that "should" be done. I anything that looked like discipline was avoided. In December and the beginning of this month, I have come to the realization that this time is over. I need to start being more disciplined and intentional in my life. This includes exercise on a regular basis, reading and just thinking more about spiritual growth as well as personal and professional growth, being more financially responsible and looking for ways to help build our ministry. I am looking forward to seeing how these changes affect my life and others for the good. I am looking forward to the blogs being a place of reflection as I journey back to being a thoughtful person.