NOOOoooo

It finally happened... Aaron and I caught the sickness.

We'd been doing great, healthy has horses (are horses even really that healthy?) Anyway, all of the sudden Chris came down sick and so like a great mom I rushed out to Walmart and got him TONS of medicine. He cleared up pretty quickly, so we thought we were safe. Then on Friday night my bro came over and he was all sneezy and stuffed up. Well, like a typical brother he kept drinking my drink and stealing my food all night (so inadvertently I ended up eating after him).

Well, on Saturday morning I woke up with a sore throat and had a hard time swallowing. I knew right then and there that things were going to get nasty. By Sunday, my glands were swollen, my sinuses were filled, and I was having a hard time hearing. It was crazy - I seriously felt like my head weighed 30lbs. Yesterday I slept till 11:00 then went to work for a couple hours and then went back home to rest some more. Aaron, my amazing husband, cleaned the entire house and had my robe and slippers waiting for me.

Thankfully I'm feeling much better this morning - Still not 100% but hopefully I'll be back in action tomorrow!

Teacher Prep

I haven't really talked much about it on the blog...but my life has been crazy lately. I'm enrolled in the Region 12 Teacher Preparation and Certification Program. I'm there Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 5:00 - 9:00 pm and then on Saturdays from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm. Needless to say, I'm stressed out and sleepy all the time because I'm still working a FULL TIME JOB!

But, I am really excited about the program. I have amazing teachers who are so full of knowledge and they really do make learning fun! Hopefully I'll be like them someday : ) I've always known that I wanted to be a teacher - actually someday I'd like to be a religion professor at a university, but I can wait on that for a while. Right now I'm getting my certification for elementary education... I used to think that I wanted to teach middle or high school, but who knows, I'll just have to see where the Lord takes me!

Part of the Region 12 program is that I have to do a 2 week internship at a school (similar to student teaching). I just talked with my sponsor teacher and I'm going to be with a woman named Melissa Holt from Connally Elementary. <-- EJ do you know anyone at Connally Elementary? The only bad part of the deal is that I have to use my 2 week WRBN vacation time to do this... Sucks huh? Oh well, it will all be worth it in the end.

Books Books and more Books

Here are a few of the books that I got for Valentine’s Day… My dad sent me the first three! Usually he sends my sister and I matching outfits from Old Navy, but I guess he decided to branch out this year. About the Old Navy outfits: I have nothing against Old Navy, but both my sis and I are perplexed why my dad always buys us skirts outfits from there – neither one of us are big Old Navy shoppers. One of my dear friends and I deduced that it’s because Old Navy is within his comfort zone. He knows that everything in there is generally in style, so he can’t really go wrong. Plus they have them in everywhere, so we can always take back the things we aren’t really fond of. I keep my outfit every year because its fun to wear something that reminds me of how much my dad loves me.

The 4th book is from my dear friend Amy..I love that girl! I actually read this book back in high school. Unfortunately I don’t remember much of it…probably because I read it in French and had to translate the entire book to English. Thank goodness for freetranslation.com!

Ash Wednesday

If you are anything like me, you probably have wondered why some people walk around with black smears on the foreheads once a year. I wondered this for years - In high school I finally figured out that it had something to do with Catholicism (I only figured this out because I dated a guy who was Catholic and I ashamedly remember trying to wipe the "smear" off of his forehead in the hallway at school.) Thankfully I made a wonderful friend my freshman year at Baylor that was from a Catholic background and she explained everything to me. Since then I have been enamored with the several Catholic traditions and especially the Holy Season of Lent.

I love the idea of spiritually preparing for the death and resurrection of our Lord. I think its a shame that Protestant churches have not adopted this mentality because I have found it to be a wonderful way to inwardly realign my focus. All to often, I get caught up in things of this world and need a time to refocus. Of course, I don't need an official Lenten time for this but I am a huge fan of community. I'm one of those type of people that draw strength and encouragement from my church family. Plus, I want to share the joys of Lent with everyone!

As far as I know, I've never been a part of a church that practices Lent. Aaron and I both participate in Lent, but as baptists it is kind of taboo to bring Catholic practices into the church (what a shame, huh?).