Today was my last day teaching kindergarten at Vega. I’m really going to miss my co-workers (shout out Jenn), the funny things the kiddos say, and the many hugs I get every day. I definitely am made to teach. The daily routine of everything had just gotten easy, and the kids were starting to really behave.

I have an second interview tomorrow afternoon for a long term substitute position in first grade in McKinney. We’ll see how it goes. Bossman let me know that we could lose our only client. I’m not sure what my job stability will be there. It’s all in God’s hands, and I have really enjoyed the journey he has me on so far.

I’ll miss my Vega family, and I hope to one day return permanently!

Nineteen years ago today I got to add Sissy to my list of names. I remember begging my mom for a baby, and I vivdly remember the morning she showed me the positive pregancy test. She told me that it meant that I would be having a baby brother or sister.

I instantly knew that the baby would be a boy, and I would have a little brother. Eventhough there is 6 1/2 years between us, we always had fun playing together. We used to think we could make it rain (think rain dance) by singing “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarten out in the backyard. We would stay up late during the summer months and see who could fart the most. He even let me dress him up like a girl a few times.

I have nothing but wonderful memories of growing up with my brother. I love him so much and feel so privledged to be his sister. I can’t wait to keep making wonderful memories with you!

Things have been so crazy. Take 9.5 hours a day at school, 3 hours a day working for Bossman, and a nasty cold and you end up with one wiped out Brooke! My cold seems to finally subsided, and I’m looking forward to trying to catch up on some sleep.

To keep you updated, our gas pipe ended up costing just under 2K to be replaced. We won’t be going on any vacations any time soon. LOL! A blessing did occur though…my engine light did finally go off. The new gas cap did do the trick! God is good.

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend with Liz, Caitlyn, and Faith. We went to the balloon festival. I’ll post pictures soon (hopefully). There have been some new happenings around here. I have an interview on Wednesday afternoon for another long term substitute position in McKinney. It’s at the richest school in first grade. I also was made aware of positions down the road that could be coming available working for the government with 2-3 year olds. I’m just open to where ever God wants me at this point.

On a more serious note: I found out that my uncle is suffering with prostate cancer. He’s in between the beginning stages and advanced cancer stages. He’s looking at surgery to remove 3 cancerous lumps and at least radiation. He will be on a catheter for a while and home for 3-4 weeks. Please pray for him, my aunt, and cousin (Garrett, who started kindergarten).

Pray that the surgery will remove all traces of cancer and that it has not spread to lymph nodes. Pray that a feeling of peace will come over the family and that God’s hand will be felt tangibly through this process. Pray for strength for my aunt as she becomes a caregiver in a whole new way. Pray that they will be able to let family and friends in to help carry them through this rough time. Pray that their family and friends will listen to His Holy Spirit to move to serve them and be God’s hands. I’ll keep you posted. The surgery is not scheduled yet.

Today I’m feeling a lot better. Do you ever have experiences at church when you just know that God is speaking to you through the pastor? I totally had that happen to me today, but through the worship time. Tommy Walker was the guest worship leader to celebrate the grand opening of our church. It was a fun time because I got to see two really great people from Grace that I really missed (shout out Rob and Candace)!

I wanted to upload the song that really spoke to me today. We may not have hot water, but it could be worse! Thank you so much God for giving me what I needed to hear.

I Have a Hope

Here’s the lyrics:

I have a hope, I have a future
I have a destiny that is yet awaiting me
My life’s not over, a new beginning’s just begun
I have a hope, I have this hope

God has a plan, it’s not to harm me
But it’s to prosper me, and to hear me when I call
He intercedes for me, working all things for my good
Through trials may come, I have this hope

I will yet praise Him, my great Redeemer
I will yet stand up and give Him glory with my life
He takes my darkness and He turns it into light
I will yet praise Him, my Lord my God

My God is for me, He’s not against me
So tell me whom then, tell me whom then shall I fear
He has prepared for me, great works He’ll help me to complete
I have a hope, I have this hope

Goodness and mercy, they’re gonna follow me
And I’ll forever, dwell in the house of my great King
No eye has ever seen, all He’s preparing there for me
Though trials may come, I have this hope

There’s still hope for me today
Cause the God of Heaven loves me

This week has been really crazy. I absolutely love spending the days with the kiddos. It’s been a long time since I got so many hugs in one day. They are starting to act a lot better in class and respond to me. The biggest problem is that the teacher I’m subbing for really hadn’t done anything with the kids, and she was behind on creating the things the kids need (folders, binders, assessments, etc). It’s been hard for me because I don’t just want to be there. I want to do the best for the kids, so I’m a little frustrated. I must be doing a good job though because the assistant principal yelled at me across the gym yesterday. Apparently another McKinney elementary school principal had called her looking for a long term sub for next month. She told her that I was awesome and gave her my number. We’ll see how that goes!

I have such a new repect for people who work two jobs. It’s so incredibly draining. It seems like all I do is work. I’m not sure how I would survive if I did not know that this was temporary. On top of everything else…Bossman broke a bone in his foot Thursday night. He’s scheduled to have surgery on Wednesday. He’s really freaking out that I’m not working full time for him right now. Luckily, he had not started to guilt me……yet!

The icing on the cake has been the financial crisis we are now facing. My jeep’s engine light came on last weekend. We did some trouble shooting and found out that it could be as simple as the gas lid. We replaced it, but that doesn’t seem to be fixing the problem (engine light still on!). That means its a bigger problem.

And then today happened! A few months ago we got a really high gas bill. We looked at our meter, and it was really hard to read. After talking to Atmos, we all determined that it must have been misread. Finally Atmos came out today. The end result…..our gas has been shut off. There is a large leak somewhere between the meter and our house. We have to have the whole line replaced by a plumber. We’re not even sure how much that is going to cost because no plumbers work on the weekend for less than 350 an hour. We are also looking at permits and city inspections before they will turn the gas back on. Not to mention the huge gas bill we are now stuck with because of the leak.

So today I sit exhausted, emotional, and a little hopeless. Will I ever see the end of this financial hole? At this point we’re sinking in it, and I have cold showers to look forward to over the next week.

I’m going to be teaching kindergarten….at least for the next two to four weeks. Sunday afternoon Jenn got a call from one of her co-teachers. She is having emergency surgery tomorrow and wanted me to sub for her while she is out. After the principal made some calls, I was in. I start this morning, and I’m really excited.

I’m going to be really busy over the next few weeks because on top of teaching kindergarten, I’m going to be still working 20+ hours at my normal job in the evenings and on the weekend. Blogging might be light, but I’ll keep you posted as much as I can. I’m running late, so I better head out the door!

Jennifer’s school has not had enough kids to add another teacher in kindergarten. I have also decided that it is not possible for me to substitute teach right now. It is just too big of a paycut and is not feasible at this time.

However, Dallas ISD has lifted their hiring freeze. There is an open kindergarten position at Gooch Elementary. I dropped by this morning and left my resume and letters of reference for the principal to look over this weekend. He will most likely schedule interviews over the next two weeks. Please pray that his heart will be softened and that he will be able to see my potential through the papers I dropped off.  I’m still keeping my eyes out for a teaching position, and I’ll keep you updated! Thanks for all the prayers!

I had the pleasure of going back to school shopping with Jenn, Caitlyn, Faith, and MeMaw (not sure if that’s spelled right). The girls enjoyed putting on a fashion show for me, and we were able to get some good deals with all the back to school sales.

The highlight of the trip was when we took Faith to get her ears pierced.  I had promised both girls that I would take them. Caitlyn decided that she was not ready and chose to watch instead.

Faith was all smiles in the chair. She was dancing around to the music playing and charming all of the ladies.

Then they put the guns to her ears. You can see that she almost looks like she might be concerned or upset.

 I immediately screamed, “You have earrings!” A big smile filled her face and no tears were shed.

She even inspired Jenn to get her ears re-pierced. Now I have to keep it real let you know that Jenn was more concerned than Faith. She kept saying, “I’ve had a C-section, and I can do this.” LOL. Faith was so sweet. She went up to her mommy and held her hand the whole time.

Then she said, “It’s OK mommy. It’s just one, two, three, click.” She just melts my heart, and they both looked stunning in their earrings.

Faith also picked monkey earrings out for her first pair to wear after her ears heal. I know a little girl that is getting earrings for Christmas! It was such a fun day, and I will cherish the memory.

Labor Day weekend was full of busyness. We started our weekend Saturday with everyone coming over for a brisket lunch and to labor on the un-level office floor (I’ll give more details of that fiasco on another post). Me, Jenn, and Jaque went out shopping on a hunt for the best scrapbook paper for Jordan’s birth announcements.

I also signed up for Shades of Summer awhile ago when Liz posted this. Of course I received the box when all of my scrapbooking supplies were in boxes! Ryan came up with a great idea that resulted in this:

He’s so smart! As the night wore on, the floor had to be taken up again and more concrete laid down to help even it out. The girls decided to go get groceries to make a fajita dinner. That trip ended up taking 2 hours (LOL), and everyone was more that ready to eat. Faith and Caitlyn didn’t even make it. They fell asleep before it was ready.

We ended the evening with some Rock Band, and everyone had left by 2am. Ryan and I were pooped out the next day and didn’t do much before leaving to have dinner with Terri, Glenn, Dad, and Kim. We had some Tex-Mex and headed back to Terri’s to play some games. Dad suggested we play Cranium because most of us had never played it.

Let me tell you….there’s a lot of rules! We laughed so hard and ended up having a great time after we got the hang of it. Glenn and I were teamed together…and won! Then we moved over to the Wii. My dad has often refused to play, and initially did not want to play that evening. Now, you have to know that my dad has been grouchy for the past few years and would not stay at family gatherings for very long. This was due to extremely bad shoulder pain. After his surgery in July, he’s a completely new man! Go God!

Terri put in bowling, and his interest was sparked. I’ll just summarize it by this timeline:

  9:30PM – We all started playing bowling
11:45PM – Ryan and I headed home
  1:00AM – Dad and Kim left
  1:15AM – Dad stopped at two stores looking for a Wii
  9:00AM – Dad starts driving around looking for a Wii
  9:15AM – Terri gets in on the search, and finds a Wii at Toys ‘R Us
10:00AM – Dad and Terri meet and successfully secure a Wii system!

The best part is that we now officially have started a bowling league. (stop rolling your eyes). It’s cool and you know it. LOL. Every Friday, we are going to get together and have a game night at Terri and Glenn’s. I’m super excited. My dad is planning on moving back to Seattle next summer, so I’m going to take every opportunity to spend time with him and make some great memories before he leaves! All we need now is bowling shirts.

Man this post is long. It’s making me tired all over again. Monday was my mom’s birthday (shout out). I made a lasagna and yummy sheet cake (recipes from Pioneer Woman). Nick came over too, and we all enjoyed visiting and talking about our good memories.

I look back on the weekend and realize how completely blessed I am to have such a great family and friends. It is so great to have everyone close by. Even though it was a very busy Labor Day, I was so glad to visit with all of my favorite people. My life is rich, and my cup runneth over!

My mom and I have a way of acting retarded a little silly when we get together, especially if there is some task we have to accomplish. Here’s a case from the vaults:

Making Cranberry Sauce
This takes place over two years. Once on Christmas and the other time was Thanksgiving (not the same year, but I can’t remember which one happened first. Let’s just say that Thanksgiving did. We got together at Granny and Papa’s so that my mom could help me make fresh cranberry sauce to take to Ryan’s mom’s house for Thanksgiving the next day. So we’re busy washing, grating, and blending cranberries when my mom mutters, “Shit!” As is turns out she had lost one a few of her press on nails that were conveniently the same color as the cranberry sauce.

We both got on our hands and knees and searched the floor for the missing nails. By that time, we were both laughing hysterically. Ryan was in the next room, but we didn’t dare tell him what had happened. I think that we came to the conclusion that they had been ground up in the food processor. Our solution – add more pecans to the cranberry sauce so no one would know. Until Mom spilled the beans over the lunch table the next day.

The following year Ryan and I decided to have Christmas dinner at our apartment for the first time. I had a huge menu planned, but I got really sick a few days before Christmas and spent most of my time sick on the couch. Mom to the rescue. She came over and helped cook my Christmas feast. One evening I felt well enough to help, so we decided to make the cranberry sauce. Mom didn’t have press on nails this time.

We thought we could skip a step and take the cranberries straight to the blender instead of sending them through the food processor. The blender does have a grate setting. Boy were we wrong. It didn’t take long for the blender to start smoking, filling the whole apartment with the smell of burning. The blender died a quick death that day. All Ryan could do is shake his head. We’re kind of like Lucy and Ethel.

I’m so very lucky to have such a great mom. We are very alike, and so much of my personality comes from her (especially my love for children). One of the neatest times was when we taught a two year old class together. So often people will look at me and say “Ok, Judy” or “You act so much like your mom, ” and that makes me happy.

Happy Birthday Mom!