Jacey = Fun Times

Within the last week or so Jacey has started to mimic the dog (that or she really is a bit crazy). She crawls around on her hands and knees and picks stuff up with her teeth then shakes her head back and forth. This is all well and cute, but it is annoying that she is biting everything. In the last week has bit me a couple of times, but because I’m her mom and I believe the best of her in all situations I don’t think she was being spiteful when biting me. I believe she was just trying to bite my shirt. Regardless, of her intentions she has been told No and gotten into trouble for biting me. Well, today i was holding her and when I looked at her she had her mouth open going for my shoulder/shirt and before I could say anything she stopped, pointed at my shoulder and said very loudly “NO!” and then she just died laughing. We have had some fun times this summer.

Summer Fun

Some recent pictures…

Probably calling 911…

If the shoes are there, she has to wear them…

Jacey and dad sporting plaid!

She also likes to wear gloves!

Again with dad’s hats.

Fun times with mom.

She now loves hats and sunglasses.

Celebration

Well, I just typed my last words as a masters student a few minutes ago. I just had a couple of last minute assignments and I am done! Whoo-Hoo! Now I just get to wait a couple of days to see my posted grades. I know I passed, it is just a matter of by how much! I walk next Friday morning, and then go back to work the following Monday. I am not going to know what to do with myself! I am sure I will be just as busy, but in a much different kind of way.

(Sigh of relief!)
mw

I am narrow-minded and He is so much more

I have been reading some fellow bloggers posts and I would like to share a little testimony of prayer (or lack of) for what it is worth.

1. Before Matt and I got married we were reading Saving Your Marriage Before it Begins, very good book. One of the sections had a question that was along the lines of What will you be giving up to get married? the section had dealt with the fact that no matter what age or stage of life you will give up something when you get married and you need to come to terms with it before it turns into a source of biterness toward your spouse. For me, I felt I was giving up my college “experience” that I had always dreamed of: traveling, living in the dorms, spending time with girls, working on campus, participating in student life events… But I thought I had a good 2 years and now I’m moving on and I won’t look back or regret this choice. In my mind this was not something to pray about, because getting married at 20 required sacrifices and I was willing to give-up my college “experience”. God on the other hand had a plan that was so much more than I ever could have imagined. He gave me the desires of my heart and I had the best of both worlds (college and marriage). Matt and I had so many opportunities to travel, we lived in the dorms, and we just really made the most of our time at DBU. This taught me a big lesson about prayer and God’s love for me. I believe that my hearts desires come from Him and that I should specifically pray that he fulfill those desires no matter how big they may seem to me.

2. I could give a lot of examples from my life of small instances when the Lord answered specific prayers in my life, but I want to share one that was a spiritual battle. When Matt decided to go back to work, we knew that we would have to find child care for Jacey. On November 28th, I prayed big and honest. My prayer was: “I hate the thought of someone else watching Jacey. Please provide the perfect solution to this problem. I am trusting You.” To be honest that trust wavered and there was a period of time that I literally could not eat or sleep and I just cried for a few days because I did not trust He would provide the perfect solution. I could not trust because I could not see a solution let alone one that was perfect. I am so narrow-minded that His solution was not even on my radar. Finally, on January 8th, He provided so much more than the perfect solution. Her Gigi said that she would watch her full-time and I could breathe again. In my narrow mind this was not even an option to be prayed about, so thankfully He had so much more planned.

So to anyone reading this that is going through a tough time and you don’t see a way out just know that we are narrow minded and short sighted. God has the perfect solution and it is probably so much more than you can fathom, so trust Him and be patient.

Prayer Answered in a Mighty Fashion

Well I have a job! It was totally a God thing… it couldn’t have happened any other way. Let me explain…

So I went to a job fair for Fort Worth ISD, along with about 500+ other individuals. I went to the first job fair that was for elementary schools to look for 5th grade positions. I had a few promising interviews, but they were at schools that were not close to home, so I was not thrilled. Then I went home to rest up for the afternoon. I returned a few hours later for the secondary job fair (middle school and high school). I got the list of the vacancies when I arrived and began to make my route once I got inside. My plan was to visit schools that had the most openings first, therefore giving myself maximum chance to be hired. Well, that was until I saw McClean middle school. They had an opening for Social Studies/ AVID. Avid is a college prep program that begins in secondary education to better prepare students for college. It is a great program and I have had a lot of interaction with it as an admissions counselor at UT Arlington. Since my masters is in Higher Education and there lies all of my experience as well, I figured it would be a shoe in. There was only two openings at that school, so I need to be quick and make it count.

The doors opened and I rushed (power walked) between tables to get in line for McClean. I was third in line, and about 50+ people were behind me. There was the principal and the assistant principal there to interview. They both interviewed the first woman, and then realized that there were too many people to do it like they were doing. So, they decided to both take people to move the line faster. They called the woman in front of me and myself up. The woman in front of me started going to the principal, and he said “no, you go to her (assistant principal), I want to talk to Matt (I had a name tag on). I sat down and started rambling off facts about myself trying to make a solid impression. I told him that I was interested in the AVID position, and he said that listing was a mistake and they didn’t actually have it. However, after some talking, he asked me to return to his table in an hour for a second interview.

About 30 minutes later, I was in another line that was behind his table. He was talking to his AP and looked around and said” there he is” and “Matt come over here”. He said that they were working through the line, but to come back in 30 minutes and do not take another job until we talk.

I came back and they stopped the line, and I came out of nowhere (that is the way it probably seemed to the rest of the people in the line who had no idea what was going on) and sat down a the table. We interviewed briefly and he had me go wait across the room while they talked. About 2 minutes later, he came over and offered me the job! Basically, I got a contract on the spot. Crazy! Come to find out, this is one of the best middle schools in fort worth, and the position that I got was extremely sought after.

In short, I will be teaching 8th grade U.S. History and a research methods elective to the top 14 students in the school. I will also get the privilege of being an assistant coach for football and track! How amazing. What started out as a mistake and a gamble ended up as a tremendous blessing and an answered prayer. Had that class not been mistakenly put on the sheet, I never would have gone to that school’s table…

God is amazing. He keeps reminding me everyday. I don’t think I could have clearer direction for what he has for me right now.

Alas, I am taking the rest of the summer off. This week will be my last at UT Arlington. I am going to take a month off to devote to finishing my masters well, spending much needed time with family, and relaxing and getting back into a running routine.

Praise God, and thanks for the prayers!

Prayer Requested

Okay so here is the scoop. I am looking for a job and I need prayer. I have recently passed the Texas teaching exam and am qualified to be a teacher. Now the trick is getting hired. Its funny because even though there is supposedly a teacher shortage, it remains difficult to get hired. Even with a Masters in Education.  Who knew? Well in any case, I have quite a few good leads. Just pray that God will open up the right door at the right time. If all works like I hope it would, I will take the month of July off to finish grad school (fingers crossed).

I am very excited about this possibility. More time with family, more interaction with students. It should be pretty cool! Well, I have applied for about 50 jobs and I am going to a job fair all day next Wednesday for Fort Worth ISD. So here’s hoping!

Thanks for the prayer in advance.

Love,
Matt

It’s been a while.

Tonight I officially say goodbye to freedom for the next two months. Tomorrow night I begin my mini term that is M-F for two weeks; 5:30-9:30 PM. After the conclusion of that class, I begin my other 3 courses for the summer. Yup 12 graduate hours, plus one summer equals insanity. Even though I seem like a moron, in just two short stressful months I will be done with my masters. I think and hope it will be worth it. Please pray that God would sustain me though this crazy time. With travel season in the fall, and more school beginning in January, I felt that I was going to desperately need a break, ever so short as it may be. Work is going well. I had to opportunity to really help a student who had been dealt a horrible hand the other day. Student’s like that make what I do worth it. (in short, her mom, dad, step-mom,  aunts and uncles all are being sentenced to 15-35 years in prison for federal drug charges, leaving her with a 17 brother, 14 brother and 8 year old sister to support). I may not be able to help every student, but I can at least help one.

Jen has only three weeks left of school for the year! That means she is three weeks away from spending all her waking time with our little ball of energy. She can’t wait! Next year she gets to go to a brand new campus, and despite the potential of a cesspool of awful kids, she will still be in a brand new school with lots of technology. After some helpful advising, Jen has decided to put off her masters for a few years. The program that she was going to start in August would have had her complete in 18 months with a principal certification. However, it turns out that you pretty much need to use that certification once you get it. You have to do 200 hours of continuous education related to administration to stay certified. This would be impossible if she didn’t get an assistant principal job after finishing the program. Since she will only have three years experience in the classroom at that point, she has decided to put it off for a few years to give herself a better chance of landing one of those jobs.

Jacey has been becoming ever so much more interesting in the last few weeks. She has been ahead of the curve thus far and we are starting to see where that is going to result in not so much fun… Heard of terrible twos? I have a sinking suspicion that she is going to hit that point at around 15-18 months. She has started little tantrums that include laying on the ground screaming and hitting her head on the ground. It’s now getting to that point where we can’t just give her everything she wants. She is going to have to learn, and that is going to be oh so much fun. On a positive note, however, she is so cool. She does new things everyday and surprises us more than we can imagine. We are so blessed and can’t believe how much fun she can be.

I intend to be a little bit more diligent about this. I hope. Maybe.

Where does time go?

okay so i am a little computer illiterate and i don’t know how to put pictures and captions. Obviously i don’t even really know how to do pictures, because this mess you see took 45 minutes. well, if they had captions they would tell you that she loves to: read, give her baby water from the cup, sit in her chair, get dressed up for easter and share her food.

Just a little tired… :(

So yeah. I am running on fumes right now. It starts yesterday. Wake up at 6:00, leave the house at 6:30. Leave work at 5:00 and go to accountability with Ryan. From Ryan’s it is off to class from 8:00 to 10:30 PM (yay for night classes!). I get home around 11:00 and pretty much go straight to bed. 11:30 Jacey starts screaming. 2:30 AM, she is still awake and not happy. She is now in the bed with us. Of course she would be so cute and want to play by tapping our heads and telling us “Hi”. We try to ignore her but I can’t. I grab a pillow and go lay down in the bathroom with the door shut. 4:30 AM alarms goes off. I get up, shower and am out the door at 4:55 AM. I drive 2 hours to Athens, TX where I will give six 50min presentations. 2:00 PM I drive 2 hours back home. It is now 7 PM and I am ragged. I am going to bed early because I am leaving the house around 6 AM tomorrow morning to drive 4 hours to Austin, TX and have another day of presentations and a drive back.

Jen is just as tired. She is a teacher. For her it never ends.

Shoot me…

Parents of the Year

Jacey has been sick all week, and today was the worse day so far.   Last night when I was up with her walking, I sat down to take a break and she feel asleep. Since she was so miserable I didn’t want to wake her up, so I sat. I was terribly uncomfortable and freezing for about 2 hours. I kept hoping Matt would come check on us and bring me a blanket, but that did not happen. So this morning I was prepared and I fixed a comfy spot to sit with a blanket, the remote and the phone. I learn from my mistakes. Sure enough, the poor thing did not want to be put down at all, so we napped on the coach from 9:00 – 1:30, which is so odd because normally she does not enjoy cuddling. Well, moving on to why we will never be the parents of the year. I was tired of holding her and needed a break so I put her in her stroller and was walking her around the house while I cleaned. She was so zoned out when I started to clean up her toys,  I handed her one to play with she just sat there and ignored me. So i just started piling all of her toys into the stroller with her. No reaction. Matt went and got the camera while I piled on the toys and she just sat there and did not move at all. It was so sad, yet it was the much needed comic relief that we needed.