Home, content, and tired.

I realize I have let this blog fall dormant for a while. For those of you who are wondering, I did succeed in my literacy challenge every month last year, even though I have yet to post the last 2 or 3 months of updates.

Moving into my trailer was a sudden, and all consuming flurry of activity. Things are finally settling down a little in that area. They are about to speed up in other areas, but it's nice to be able to retreat to a settled home.

The reason it took so long for an announcement about the trailer has to do with the flurry of activity, as well as I just could not settle on the words that seemed fitting. (That is also the reason you finally got a post of all photos). Maybe later, I will come up with words about it.

I'm in two classes this semester, and even though the classes are only two days a week, they seem to be able to consume the rest of the week as well. I forgot how much fortitude and endurance it required to be a student. I remember why I worked so hard to graduate.

So, here it is, a note to evidence my actual existence. I aim to do better in being more regular in blogging, but we shall see.

Thanks for checking up on me. I'll have more for you soon.

Deep breath, here we go...

Today, I am headed to an interview for school. It has been years since I have been to an interview.

With what may appear to be years of failure behind me, I am making a move forward. I used to think they were failures. This may sound cliche, but I am realizing that they were not necessarily failures, but redirections. I am one of those people who can get so focused that God must use a little bit more than gentle words to get me where I am supposed to be. Today, is the culmination of many months of gathering my broken pieces and seeing a mosaic beginning to form. I am beginning to see that maybe my life was meant to be a mosaic, and not a uniformly beautiful vase. The pieces are coming together in a beautiful way, so unlike the objects from which they originated.

I am excited. I am praying that this mosaic is pleasing to God. I am praying that I can remained focused on glorifying God, even when I'm tempted to focus on paper cuts and stubbed toes. I am praying I don't throw up in the interview. I am praying.

Remember that entry I posted a few months ago? The Monsters Behind the Closet Door? This is one of those moments I wrote about, but I'm not going to allow the monster outside the closet to prevent me from opening it, and finding out that the closet is really a doorway.

Deep breath... in... out... in... out... in...and here we go.

Feel free to pray with me.

What's going on here?

Admittedly, I have been rather absent lately. I am trying to get back on track though.  I thought maybe, to make it up to you, I would do a sort of blog I don't usually do, an update on life.  Often I do blogs on ponderings, and blogs on places I've been, but I usually leave my day to day out of it, mainly because my day to day bores me, but just for you, blogfriends, I will compile my recent day to day into a summary.

This summer I did another week of teaching the memory verse station at VBS.  I enjoyed doing that again. I have been teaching the 1st-3rd grade station these 2 years, so it was really sweet when a sweet 3rd grader came to me on the last day of VBS and told me that next I "should move up to the 4th-6th grade station" so I could still teach her. It was very nice of her, and I will cherish it...but if I do it again, I think I shall stick with 1st-3rd grade... as I have already taught most of the 4th-6th graders in the past, and will likely teach them again soon in Jr. High.  I need to give them a small break from me if they're still going to think I'm cool by the time they get to junior high youth group.

During that week, I discovered that my car needs more repairs than it is worth. I have been working on fixing the cheaper, bare minimum stuff to keep it running, while looking around for a new car.  I'm thinking hyundai, at the moment, but I have yet to test drive anything at the moment.  Part of me cringes at the price of another car.  The other part of me says, "But wouldn't it be nice to drive something with a CD player, cruise control, and power locks?"  In the meantime, I am thankful that Bakersfield has been mostly merciful, in not having it's normal, daily record breaking heatwaves as I am, yet again, driving around another summer without air conditioning. This is the 3rd summer in a row, for various reasons each summer.

As many of you know, I went on a quick trip to Hawaii with a friend, and we visited my cousins and played tourists for a while. That was very enjoyable. Oh, how I miss Opal's Thai truck... And my cousins, of course! ;-)  I am now trying get myself back into the swing of things here in California.  It is hard to come back to a life where I have no schedule, and very little to do on a daily basis, after being in Hawaii, with something to do every day, and a lax, but interesting schedule. Also, the rental car had air conditioning and a CD player. And then there is the fact that Hawaii is 3 hours behind California. So while in Hawaii I had managed to adjust to getting up at 7 am, and going to bed at 11 pm, I am having a more difficult time adjusting back, which often means I'm getting up at 10 am, and going to bed at 2 am...  That probably should be fixed.

I am scrambling together the last bits of required application stuff for graduate school, and hoping to be in this fall.  Which is good, but means that while Compassion is hosting a sponsor tour in Haiti, I will be doing homework instead.  This is sort of a win win situation, though, because if I am not going to Haiti, it is because I got into graduate school, but if I don't get into graduate school, it means I get the chance to go to Haiti!

I am enjoying going to my church, the few times I have been in town on the weekend this summer.  There aren't many people there my age, but everyone is warm to me anyway.

And I have enjoyed the down time I have been able to have with my friends this summer.  And this weekend, I get to go hangout in Marina with my brother, and Laura, maybe go to the aquarium, maybe hangout with a cousin, but in general, I get to go play again.  Don't tell my cat...  She's still mad about the Hawaii thing.

And that, blogfriends, is my summary of my summer life so far!