How Long is Summer?!!

Can't wait for school. Thats all I am going to say.

Exerpts From a Book

"If all our dreams lie shattered before us- nevertheless, God can sustain us and even build new dreams."

"Someone didn't place his desires under God's authority- nevertheless, God's power over my life is stronger than that event."

There was a time I wouldn't have agreed with these statements. Now, not only can I say I agree with it, but that I KNOW it with all my heart to be true.

Whatever you are going through, no matter how hard and painful- God has a plan.

Have a nice day!

Home Goods

I got a job at Home Goods about three weeks ago. So it makes up for the lack of hours at Subway. Praise the Lord. I forgot to mention that in my last post. Thats all. :)

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my spiritual birthday! (My sister's too) It has been five years. I am thankful that God would save me and change me life completely. I would never go back.

Subway- eat Fresh!

I had an interview at Subway today. I got the job! It is only 20 hours but I will get more if I am productive. It is a job so I don't mind. A lot of places I went were on a hiring freeze and business is slow. As time goes by I know more oppurtunities will arise. Praise the Lord!

Tommorrow will be two weeks that I have been without a job. Both Ryan's in town closed. We were told that there wasn't enough sales and that the restaurants didn't have any future outlook. Not even our managers knew it was going to happen. Corporate decided months ago and it is a lengthy process that can't be stopped. Corporate came on that Sunday and told our managers. The next day there was a mandatory meeting where they told all the employees. During the meeting they were already taking the sign down.

All that to say pray for me to find new job quickly.

Ryans had a relaxed atmosphere and we all got along well. It was kind of like a family. The six girls (including myself) that worked there got pretty attached to the two managers Jamie and Dwight. Dwight was like a giant watchdog/teddy bear. :) Jamie used to call us the skirts. She would always say "the skirts are here," or "I love my skirts!" She told us that people in the restaurant asked about us, the other team members liked working with us, we were hard workers and had a good spirit. When I was hired last year I was hired entirely on someone else's testimony. I didn't fill out an application or have an interview. Mandy told them about me and they told me to come to work. Mandy had such a good reputation that they simply hired me because of her. This year there were five of us, when there were only two last year. Another girl from the college came to fill out an application a little while ago. Jamie came in the back and asked us about her and then hired her on the spot.

Now, I didn't say all that to glorify us or the college but to say that it is an example of how imporatant your testimony is. I have been told that your testimony is a very valuable thing. As time goes by I can see that it is true more and more. It would do all of us christians well to guard it closely. People are watching us and we do not represent ourselves but rather God. I never really realized how much we as christians can make a difference at work until Ryan's. I am so glad for the experience of working there. I learned so much, even more than I have already mentioned.

School is going good. I am loving it. :)

This past weekend Naomi and Mrs. Renee came and suprised me! I was COMPLETELY SURPRISED! It was so awesome to get to see them. I missed both of them tremendously.

I am here!

So I am at school and it's awesome. I got here the first and stayed with the Harty's until the dorms opened up on Monday the 5th. Monday I moved into the dorms and started at Ryan's. Tuesday was orientation and registration. Yesterday was the first day of classes.

Classes:
General Math
Sophomore English
Child Character Training
Computer Basics
Children's Literature
Personal Finance
Christian Womanhood

At work I get one more hour a plus a fifteen cent raise from last year. :) I work a restaurant called Ryan's. They took me back again this year.

I only have two roomates so that is pretty sweet, considering some rooms have five. Generally there are four to a room. I was told that last semester they had to turn people away because there was not enough dorms. Some rooms had five and six!

Anyways thats it for now.

Four Days!

Four days until the good ship lollipop leaves for Kentucky. I can't wait! The dorms open up January 5th. I will be leaving Thursday the 1st. I am riding with a teacher at the college who is from Decatur. I will have my job at Ryan's back. So YAY.

Seriously I love college and I have missed everyone.

The wedding I was in was beautiful. It was sad afterwards though. It's hard to explain. Friendships change when one gets a boyfriend and even more so when one gets married!

My flight was okay. It wasn't as cool as I expected. It was so pretty looking out the window. Everything looked so small. The houses looked like cardboard and fragile, as if they could be knocked over if someone touched them. It was so amazing to think about. If the houses look that small, how much smaller are we to God in Heaven? Yet God still cares, listens, and pays attentions to us. Anyways, so that was the only cool thing. I get motion sickness really easy these days. Plus it made my head hurt so bad. I felt awful. My head felt like a mixture of having a bad cold and the way it feels when my sugar bottoms out. My stomach felt the way it feels after riding a roller coaster. So yeah.

Plus my flights were delayed. One flight was canceled delayed and then on time. It was crazy.

Maybe I will post pictures later.

Not to drag this on...

I forgot a couple of things. They seem a kind of important.

Other firsts:

-Leading someone to the Lord
- Leading fanily members to the Lord!! (Shalyn and Niki)
- Teaching my own sunday school class (Usually I just sub) I taught for eight weeks at church for a sunday school program we had.


By the way my brother Joe has been coming to church. I didn't ask him. He just showed up and surprised me. He came last sunday morning, evening and Wednesday. Then he came yesterday morning and evening. It's super cool!!

Firsts

A lot of things have happened in this past year or so that have been firsts for me.

Firsts:
- Off to college

- Everything about college was it's own first.

- Job/paycheck, Filling out tax forms (Funny story about that... I called Naomi to help me)

- Bill, and first time setting up payment plans to pay said bill

- Cell phone that I actually pay for

- Paying to go the doctor, and first time to go by myself. (My mom always went with me.)

- Final notice (Don't worry it was a misunderstanding and it's all fixed :))

- Paying for my own prescriptions.

- Checking/Savings account

- Buying checks and writing them

- Debit card

- Ordering off the internet

- Riding a greyhound bus, and by myself out of state

- Getting taxes done

- Getting an I.D

- AND today I VOTED for the first time!! :)

In December I will be a bridesmaid in my friend Tawsha'a wedding. That will be a first. Plus I am flying there, a first as well! ! !


Last, I don't know about my mom. She is the same I guess, hasn't seen the doctor I don't think. Still waiting. Plus I will know more when she answers my pone calls.

Following Suit

Now that Morgan, Naomi and Angela have done it I am curious. So it would be awesome if you could post a comment to let me know who reads my blog. Please.

Pray For My Mom

Last Sunday my mom was taken to the hospital because she was having a heart attack. It would have been worse if she had not gotten there sooner. She was in the hospital for six days. She just got out on Saturday. Her being there opened a can of worms. They found tons of stuff wrong with her or that she needs to get checked out. Some we already knew about, but have gotten worse because she hasn't been taking medicine for. She already has heart problems, but she also has COPD, asthma and emphysema which only put more stress on the heart. Imagine too not taking meds for any of it. So they couldn't get her breathing under control or her enzyme levels down. Plus her blood pressure was too high so they wouldn't let her go home. Friday they were going to let her go home but when they took her off the IV she got worse.

So now she is home on a heart monitor, oxygen, breathing treatments and tons of different medications. She has coronary artery disease and some other heart stuff I can't name. Plus they say her diabetes has progressed to type 2. Now she has to take insulin shots. She is on a machine at night now because she has obstructive sleep apnea. Plus to top it all off she has to see three specialists about the possibility of cancer. They found three lumps on each breast. Mom said she thought they didn't really think it was cancer because she has had two fatty tumors before. They want her to get checked for lung cancer for the obvious reasons. Also, at the hospital they said she is losing blood somewhere and has lost too much weight too fast, thus they think its possible she may have colon cancer. Since leaving for college and coming back my mom has dropped atleast 100 pounds. I am not sure the exact figure. She has lost the majority of it in the last seven months. She hasn't really been trying plus it's always been hard for her to lose wieght, so thats the concern.

So please pray for her.

Finally

This is where my trip started. The bus station. It was my first time buying bus tickets, riding a bus on my own and riding out of state. I was excited. I felt like an adult. :) Preacher was laughing at me in amusement. He took this picture of me and Mrs. Rowell with my bag and tickets.


So the first day of the Iowa State Fair (ISF) they had this. You had to come early and eat a corn dog to get free admission to the fair. They wanted to get the most people to eat a corn dog at the same time for the Guiness World Book of Records. Well, they could only make like eight thousand corn dogs. 11,000 people showed up. Then after 11,000 they couldn't fit anymore in the stadium. If you made it by the deadline they still let you in so 31,000 people were wandering around the fair grounds in addition to that. 5,000 people were in line to get in at the deadline. Crazy huh? This was my number.


My corn dog!


Molly's mom and Molly.


Me and Molly.


Molly's dog, Cookie. I fell in love with her! I was outside playing with her. They told me she would growl and bark at me when I first got there. She didn't, she walked right up to me tail wagging and happy. She liked me too :)


Butter Cow. Cool huh?!


I know their are tons of cows around, but I had never seen one up close. So I had to take a picture.


This was taken merely because it was amusing. Elvis is so ancient. Talking about back in the day. Who new T.V guides were around back then? :) The building this was in was called pioneer hall. It was my favorite. They had old books and record players and dolls and stuff. They even had old pictures of John Wayne. :( I don't really like westerns. I found a canning guide for Mrs. Rowell from 1965. They also had someone dressed up as a blacksmith making things. They had old printing stuff too. It was just cool.


This is what me and Molly got to ride for free. Someone gave us their tickets. We had been walking around all day and needed to get to the other end of the fairgrounds so it was greatly appreciated.


It's the ISF, what do you expect? I took pictures of some animals just because it was all a new experience for me.


Who knew a llama could be in Iowa?


This was the winner of the big boar contest, weighing 1259 pounds. Or maybe it was 1258?

It's hard to see people you love go through hard things. It is especially hard to see your young nieces and nephews go through things. I wish that they didn't have to grow up the way that I did. Or experience some of the same things I did. I hate to see them suffer because of choices their parents make. I don't have favorites but two of my nieces have very special places in my heart. You love them all the same but in different ways. Shalyn has a special place in my heart because I see so much of myself in her. Because she was the first niece. Because she had me wrapped around her finger the first time I saw her. She made me want a little girl just like her someday. I hate seeing the way she has to live, a lot like the way I grew up. The other niece that has a special place in my heart is Lydia. She is sweet, naive, cheerful and perky. She is also a first. She was the second niece, but first child of a different brother. Lydia has a much happier safe life, not without problems though. Her daddy never ever payed attention to her and now has left. Doesn't care enough to be a part of her life. Her dad is not a bad person but something just went very wrong in his heart. She acts up now because her "daddy" is gone. She thrives on attention, and I have heard her say she misses her dad many times. I think that her behavior has a lot to do with the absence of her dad when he was around and the complete absence of him now. I just hurt for her because in a way I understand. I hate that her seven year old innocence has to be ruined by the D word. She's seven, she doesn't understand.

I pray for my family and things always seem to go from bad to worse. Sometimes it's hard to have faith when you feel like your prayers aren't being answered. It's hard to have faith when you look at your nieces and nephews all under the age of seven, who suffer because of their parents. It never helps either when I get lectures about having faith and never stop praying and etc. It doesn't make me want to have faith anymore than before. It just makes me want to scream. I do still pray and I am not giving up, I am just saying.

I know how God has worked in my life and I am sure He can do the same with my family. In HIS time. It makes me want to raise my kids the right way. I never want my children to experience the things I or my family members did.

Pictures Coming Soon

Two weeks ago I traveled by bus to Ottumwa Iowa to meet my friend Molly and her Mom. She lives in Coatsville, Missouri. It is right on the border of Iowa and Missouri. In fact, the state line is right next to her driveway. Anyways, I went to her house to spend a few days with her and go to the Iowa state fair. I had a lot of fun.

I can't right now, but I will post pictures soon and tell about the trip.

Also, I am not going back to college until second semester. I need to save more money. So please be praying for me about this.

AND my sister and her baby Kaiden are coming back on Saturday. :)

Explanation :P

So the thing on my last post is called wordle. You put your blog into in it and it makes this thing. It organizes all the words from biggest to littlest by how often they appear on your blog. It's on Mr. Mike's blog. I thought it was pretty cool so I decided to do it too.

K. Well.

So I am now in search of another job. I thought that I would be getting full time hours, but that isn't happening. I get less hours at Camilles than I do at Steak n Shake. They will be getting another owner next week and who knows how that will go. Camilles doesn't get too busy so only 4 people can work during the rush, and two during the non-busy times. Since there are several other people who have been there longer they get the hours they want, and I get the bottom of the barrel it seems. Pray I get a good full time day job. That is what I REALLY need.

I Don't EVEN Want to Hear It!!

I know I know I know!! I haven't posted in awhile. I have been busy so I don't want to hear it.

So God provided me with another job. I got a full time job at Camilles Sidewalk Cafe. I have beeb working there for about 3 weeks. I work there during the day and Steak n Shake in the evenings.

Dustin likes to say that I now have no life, but I want to go back to college. Besides I enjoy my jobs for the most part. I can not even believe how much I miss college.

Anyways, not a whole lot going on except working and church. This weekend Miss Naomi and I went to Kentucky to a friend of ours wedding. Then we went and kind of surprised Stephanie. Bro Dave accidently told her we were coming. oops. Oh well. It was fun and now I am super tired. Miss Naomi is really super tired because she did all the driving. There was a lot of driving involved. The wedding was down in the hills of Kentucky, or the sticks, like Miss Naomi likes to say. :P It was like two and half hours past the camp. I used to think the camp was out there but Evarts, KY makes getting to the camp a piece of cake. Then we drove back up to camp after a fifteen minute wedding.... Then Sunday morning we drove to Lexington to go to church, which is another hour from the camp. Plus we had a six hour drive back home.

My best friend just had a birthday not to long ago. She is awesome. She is a strong christian and I admire her. She has always been there for me. She knows me better than anyone on this earth. She is confident and assertive. She brings joy into the lives of those all around her. And I love her for all these reasons and more. She's amazing. And I want everyone to know. :) Happy birthday to her.

Happy late birthday to you Mrs. Kristy. Hope it was awesome. :) She too is awesome.

One Down, One More to go!

I had orientation at Steak N Shake yesterday. I start on Thursday part time. I will be working there in the evenings.

So one more to go!!