Real..

This is one of my all time favorite pictures that I have ever taken. This is also a New York City picture, but it is much more than that. I love reading, and most people who know me know that to a degree. One of my favorite authors is Karen Kingsbury. She has a few series that I like, including the Redemption series, the Firstborn series, and the Sunrise series. All of those series have to do with the same basic family and there are 14 books in total! They were awesome to read. Another of my favorites of her series is the 9/11 series. This is a touchy subject for authors. Do they go there and, if they do, how deep do they go? This series was awesome. It basically, without giving too many details, gives the stories of a few families involved in 9/11. It follows one family in particular for a few weeks before, a little during, and the majority is in the aftermath. A whole host of things happens in the first book and in the second book, healing begins. That is where this church comes in play. I read these books before I went to New York City. The second book talks of a little chapel across from the site of the World Trade Centers. THIS is that chapel. I have many more pictures of what is inside it, from the badges found at the scene to a large candle memorial that burns inside. I love this picture because it made this tragedy real to me. I watched what was happening on television when the attacks happened. It felt real then. It even felt real when I would walk my dog outside at night and NO planes would be flying overhead (that was actually kind of creepy). But I visited New York City 6 years after the tragedy. The rubble is mostly cleaned up. They have started rebuilding the area. This church made me feel I was there. Like I was not just on some class field trip with junior high kids. Inside of this church, people are constantly going through. There is constant music playing- inspirational classical music (which I am not usually fond of). It just seemed to be a place of reverence. So this is my picture for today. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Non-Stop...

So I missed a day in my blog. I was not thrilled with this, but I figured I would hop right back on the old horse and keep going. I had a good reason to miss yesterday, however. It was my friend's birthday and we went out to celebrate. We went to dinner and then ran around some. It was fun and I got back home entirely too late (read 2:30 in the morning!!) and had to be to work by 8, which means that I had to be up by 7. I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep and am still going! I had to give a speech before our evening activities resumed last night. That was NOT fun. I do not like to get in front of people at all, let alone be the center of attention. If I am going to talk, it is usually in a small group of people that I am very familiar with and that know me. Oh, and we are SITTING down, not standing. Or else everyone is standing. Anyways, like usual, I had procrastinated and was writing this speech down to the last minute. I got a few uh-oh moments when she asked about something written in the article, but I believe that I did well. We then went downstairs to the daycare center in the college and presented some of our science projects that we have been doing lately in class. The kids were sooo cute and sooo interested in what was happening. I was helping my friend, the one whose birthday it was, present her project of coloring on white paper with a white crayon and then water coloring over it to make the crayon marks appear (otherwise known as crayon magic or something like that..). It was a blast and started off our evening well.

Today was crazier than yesterday, probably because I had so little sleep the night before. The kids seemed crankier and louder than any other day this week. It could be because I was soo tired, but my assistant had the same thoughts, so I am not sure. I think that they knew it was Friday and are tired of seeing us all day by Friday and are just ready to go home with mom and dad and chill out for the weekend, just like we are. Everything went well today, it just seemed really rushed, and nobody likes to be rushed through their full day. By the time nap time rolled around this afternoon and I got my break, instead of doing homework like I should, I decided to check out the blogs that I read and check my FaceBook page. This relaxed me somewhat, at least enough to finish my day without completely ripping out my hair. Let me say something before you all think that I am this horrible person and why am I working with children. I love my kids. They are a HUGE part of my life. By Friday afternoon, especially when I am tired, their whining and screaming starts to get to me. I would not trade my job for any other in the world. I LOVE what I do. However, weekends are nice also. So tonight I had supper at my mom's house and then did my homework. (Yes, it got done BEFORE it was due.) And now I am updating you lovely folks with my last two days of antics. Nothing too exciting, and I may post more about some subject that I am completely forgetting about right now tomorrow or Sunday. For now, I am going to enjoy listening to my music and looking around at some different sites (and waiting for my friend to finish her homework) and then I am going home and going to BED. (It sounds so nice...) :)

BTW If you are interested in helping with an organization called Angel Food (*which happens to take place tomorrow morning at 8:30) let me know and I can get you in contact with the right people. Have a great night!!!!

Educational..

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took while I was in New York City with my neices school. We were on top of the Empire State Building, you know where on Sleepless in Seattle they meet, and everything just looked so peaceful and serene. The cars look like MatchBox cars and everything looks so organized. The buildings even look small from up there. I felt awed by that scene and I hope that you all enjoy it also.

Happy..

Three days in a row. My reading crowd of.. um... none.. should be proud of me. Haha. Today was a good day. This was the first day in quite a while that I woke up and was actually awake. I was not exhausted from the moment I got up until sometime in the afternoon where I would feel like I was finally awake. As a result, I am sapped this evening, but it was good to be fully awake all day long. We had a small scare at work today, thought one of my kids had the chicken pox. Ended up that he had an allergic reaction to amoxicillan. Who knew that that particular reaction looks almost identical to chicken pox? Not us. No one had seen an allergic reaction quite like it. But his mom picked him up and then called us after the doctor appointment with the news. We were quite thrilled actually. Being that it is Wednesday, I also had church tonight. (A side note: Angie got me this AWESOME camera from one of the websites she surveys on or whatever she does on there. I LOVE the camera and think it is one of the best gifts I have ever received from someone who is not family!!! Thanks, Ang!!!) I love church days/nights, especially when I get to hang out with the awesome youth group. The kids are so full of love for each other and God that it is just awesome and inspiring to watch them (most of the time). Our session tonight was the end of February's topic of Love, Sex, and Dating. (Yes, this is how Grant said it, with a whisper on the sex part). The actual lesson was about dating and how we can be okay with being single. God intends for people to be single- sometimes for a few months or years and sometimes for a lifetime. While I hope and pray that I am not one of the ones who is handpicked to be single for my lifetime, if I am I will be okay. This opened my eyes tonight. We are taught as a society that being by yourself is somehow "wrong" or odd. God has a purpose in everything that he does, including who he has for you and when you will meet them. It all has to be in HIS timing, not ours. And while I would personally like to meet someone sooner rather than later, I do not know what God has for me and do not want to rush into anything that could turn out badly. So here before you all, my non-readers (lol), I want to commit to being happy with being single. There may be days I am so frustrated about it that I could scream and there will be days that I will see other people's relationships going down the tube and be grateful that I do not feel that pain. However, I want to do this relationship thing right and the way to do that is to wait on God. When God decides that the time is right for me to be in a relationship, I pray that it will be with a godly man who cherishes me for who I am, not who he wants me to be. God wants me to have the best that I can have, just like he wants each of us to have the best that we can have. So for today (and I may have to say this every day), I will wait on Him.

My Kids..

So besides posting an actual wordy blog each day, I figured it would be kind of cool to also do a picture post each day. Some days it may be more than one picture, but it will always have to do with something that is super important to me. Today's picture is my kids. These are my work kids. If I ever write about what my kids did today, it will be these precious children that you are seeing right here that I am talking about. All 8 of them are very special in their own way. I love having a completely mixed class, half boys and half girls. Some of my kids have been sick lately, but hopefully they will all be back to their healthy and destructive ways soon. :)

Crazy..

So I blog again. Maybe this is a good thing. Write down my activities of every day. I had to be to work early today, Tuesdays and Thursdays are early days for me because I have to leave at 4:30 to be to class by 5. I was soo tired when I got up. I could have fallen back into bed easily. But I kept at it and I got there, and only a couple of minutes late. :) My assistant was off yesterday because of a health issue having to deal with her mother, one that did not turn out very well. So we were a little down today because of what she may have to watch her mom go through. We were also down in children today though, since we had only 5 children instead of our full class of 8. So many of my kiddos are sick this week, but that may be a blessing in disguise. We are busy enough to keep our minds off of non-work subjects, while not being crazily overwhelmed with stinky diapers. I had homework due tonight and a test, so I also got to do that stuff randomly through the day as I had time. I got my homework done right before the first kid woke up from their afternoon nap- we got lucky with that one too!! They slept from about 12:30 until 3 today! (I hope their parents don't hate us too much tonight..) I also got to study for my test, but not until we were on our way to school. This morning I got to go to the doctor again and found out that I am FINALLY getting better from this lung crap that I keep having rear up- I have finally been downgraded to bronchitis instead of having every possible lung ailment that is not cancer or tuberculosis thrown at me. They did a chest x-ray and it was all clear and they drew blood. I will get the results of the blood work tomorrow sometime. She says I will have a cough for around 6-8 weeks, but I can totally handle that, especially since she gave me some cough medicine to take at night. The test tonight was not horrible, I think I may have missed one, but we shall see. I also turned in my lesson plans so we will see if I did those right or if I completely missed the boat. We ended our night doing the experiment of Mentos in Diet Coke. That was messy, but fun. Today was a day of trials, as is every day. But we have made it to yet the end of another successful day. Tomorrow will bring it's own problems, so there is no need to worry about that tonight. Tonight I am going to curl up with my lovely computer, check ALL of the blogs I read, contact people that have tried to get me all day long, and just veg. After all, we all deserve a little downtime. :)

Pictures..

One thing I forgot to mention in my book of an opening paragraph is that I LOVE photography. I am in no way a professional photographer, but I love to take pictures of scenery and the kids that I love dearest. I just thought that I would attempt to put one of my most recent favorite pictures I took in this post. We had a snow storm, a few inches, and I caught this photograph just as the sun was coming up over the other houses.

Me..

I never expected to start a blog. I was looking around at different blogs tonight and thought, well I have absolutely nothing to say, and my life is rather boring, but maybe I should try one. I believe I have had a blog before, but obviously since I am not sure, I don't keep up with it. I want to keep up with this blog. I am not good at journaling, and do not promise to do this daily or even weekly. That would be a good start for me though. I will start by giving a little background on myself. I am 24 years old and live in the grand state of Illinois, made "famous" lately by our lovely EX-governor Rod Blagojevich (and that is the only time his name will EVER appear on this page). I have lived here all but 2 years of my life, when I lived in Kingsport, Tennessee with my brother and his family. I like being around my family, most of the time, which is why I moved back. I work at a daycare and my kids are my life. I want kids of my own in the future, but for right now my 8 kiddos are plenty to keep me busy during the day, while still being able to have freedom after work. They will probably be responsible for a large part of this blog because, between work and church, I really do not have much of a life. :) That is another thing. I am a Southern Baptist. I believe that abortion is wrong, especially in a country where murdering a pregnant woman is grounds to be charged with 2 murders. How can you kill a baby in one instance and it be alright but kill a baby in a different instance, while still killing a BABY, and it be legal?? I think homosexuality is a sin. The Bible clearly states that sleeping with another person of the same gender is not kosher and I fully agree with that. I don't care for "change", as some politicians have worded it. I am also in the very minor group who likes George W. Bush and thinks he did a good job with what and who he had to work with. Some things could have been different, but overall I think he did a great job. This will not be a political blog, these are just some thoughts that I have when I think of who I am. I am single. I like that sometimes and other times it truly sucks. Like when something great happens and I want to call that special someone. I do want to get married and I do want children, probably 3 or 4. This has become a totally random post, but most of them probably will be because that is how I think. I can be on one subject and totally go in reverse if I think of something else. If I don't get it out when I think about it, half the time I forget about it. Sad when that happens and I am as young as I am. I graduated in 2003 from a small (read class of 65 people) high school. I loved high school and I was lost for a couple years after I got out because I did not know what to do with myself. I was super involved in many aspects of school, including yearbook and helping out with the boys sports teams. I am currently in college to get my associate's degree in early childhood education. If I choose to continue my education in the form of a bachelor's, I would eventually be able to teach up to 3rd grade. I am not sure if this is an avenue I would like to pursue or not. The parents and siblings are all for it, but I am kind of getting tired of this homework business, so after I finish my current degree, I plan on taking a little time off. I have already mentioned that family is of super importance to me. I have a great set of parents that will have been married 26 years this coming June. I have 3 siblings, 2 are technically half, but we love each other the same. I have one brother and 2 sisters. My oldest sister turned 40 in November and has 4 girls, ages 14, 12, 9, and 6. My brother turned 32 in January and is married to my sister-in-law (obviously) and they are the parents to 2 boys, ages 6 and 4. My younger sister is 19 and is dating a guy that the family doesn't know. My neices and nephews are my pride and joy. I love them and would do anything for them. My cousin is also important in my life, and yes I only have 1 first cousin out of my parents combined 5 siblings. (My dad is one of 5 and my mom is one of 2.) She will be 33 in March and has a precious, but stubborn almost 18 month old who cracks me up with his looks and his overall attitude about life. He may not say much, or anything really, but he thinks he knows it all and sounds like a little Taz when he is telling you all about it. I work with 9-15 month olds and they have to be the greatest group of kids I have ever had, with the exception of my first class of 2 year olds. They are 4 now and I miss them being so small. I love my "assistant" and hate that title but co-teacher takes so much longer to type. :p My coworkers are trying at best, the majority of them, but the small group I have as my rock are awesome. I love helping out with the teens at church and have recently become closer to some of them. I do not have many friends, but the ones I have are worth keeping. I guess I will cut this short now, seeing as it is after 10 and I have to be at work by 7:30. Thanks for sticking through the whole post, if you did congratulations. I did not expect it to be this long, or random, but eh.. it IS my blog after all. :)