4 Simple Words

God is so good!

TOMS

Lately I have heard a lot about TOMS shoes. I first learned about TOMS on Cristin's blog. Then I have seen a few people with them on and they look so comfy and cute. The really great thing about TOMS shoes is that for every pair of shoes you buy, they send a pair of shoes to a child in need around the world. Very cool! So I purchased my first pair of TOMS tonight and they sent me an e-mail with a promo code to forward. Here is the message:

Forward the promo code ShareTOMS to your family and friends for the next 7 days via email. They will receive $5 off their next online purchase. It's ok if you use it too!

Yeah for TOMS!

Parent Conferences

Today marks the end of parent conference week. I love sitting down with parents, getting to know them and talking about their child's progress. This year I had 2 conferences that involved tears. These weren't negative or angry tears. They were tears of grief of the reality of a degenerative disease, and tears of grief from the isolation that comes with having a child struggle with mental illness. Through these tears came support and understanding, so they were healthy tears. Difficult, sad tears, but healthy nonetheless. My heart aches for the many families dealing with the day-to-day reality of having a child with special needs. Each child is a blessing from the Lord with their own capabilities, personalities and other unique traits. It can be extremely isolating to have a child with behavioral or physical difficulties. If you know someone with a special needs child, could you reach out to them and tell them they are not alone? It might bring tears, but they might just be tears of relief that someone cares.

Wardrobe Swap!!

Mark your calendars for a WARDROBE SWAP!

What a fun idea! :)

My friend Cristin sent me this invite to a wardrobe and I just had to tell you about it. I think it is an awesome idea to bring clothes, shoes and accessories you want to give away, then swap for some new (to you) items!

Here is the info:

WARDROBE SWAP!!!!!!
Saturday November 14th, 2009
7pm
Community Bible Church
2686 Johnson Drive #B
Ventura, CA. 93003
$5 entry fee ( money will go to Raining Hope)
http://www.raininghope.org/

Please raid your closets and then raid ours!!!
Bring clothes, shoes, accesories and swap with friends!!
LET ME KNOW IF YOU CAN MAKE IT! We'd Love to Have You:)

Thanks, Cristin, for sharing this!

True Religion

Tonight my cousin shared a blog post on facebook that shook me to my core. Currently, there are over 150 million orphans in the world. I am blown away by the stories from Katie, the author of a blog chronicling her work in Uganda. Please take a look at her important post.

UPDATE: I'm not sure if the link above worked, so you can visit the post here:
http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2009/08/be-warned-i-always-re-read-things.html

James 1:27 – “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Thanks, Drew, for sharing this.

I love this song about true religion.
By Lisa Chan
Written by Francis Chan

Think of Me

UPDATE: Again, not sure if the above link worked. If not, visit it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk2FObXS0wQ

I Love...

God.
Grace.
Randy.
Marley.
Family.
Friends.
My students.
My work.
Our home.
Our church.
Our neighbors.
My pillow.
Our trailer.
Taking pictures.
Taking trips.
Blogs.
Trader Joe's.
Strawberry popsicles.
The occasional Starbucks latte.
Jeans.
Water.
Mexican food.
Puppies.
Babies.
Mints.
Pajamas.
Hume Lake.
Christmas.
Photo books.
Surprises.
A good book.
A good joke.
A good laugh.
A hot bath.
A cold day.
Loving.
Being loved.

UPDATED: I love my crockpot! I have made crockpot meals for the past few nights and it is so easy and yummy! And I won't need to cook for like 4 nights with all the leftovers we have! :)

What do you love?

Oops!

"We all make mistakes. Life is short. Stuff doesn't matter. It could happen to anyone. It has happened to a few people already. Don't worry about it. "

These are the nice things people have said to me in the past few days, but I am still soooooooooooo bummed!

So my work is wonderful and got us special ed teacher laptops to use for, um, work purposes of course. Well, I do a lot of work at home (no really, I do), so I kept my wonderful laptop at home. Safe and sound. Until.... I dropped it!!! Huge bummer! The LCD screen is cracked. I couldn't hardly sleep- I was so worried about work and the trouble I was in. I sheepishly brought the laptop in to work and told our IT guy about it. He told me I would have to call "The District." Huge bummer. So, I sheepishly called the district IT lady I know who used to be our IT. I told her about it and she assured me that they were covered by warranty and all would be fine. Whew! Until... I get an e-mail today that says the warranty does not cover the cracked screen and it will be $500. She then asks me if she should ask the director of special ed for approval to spend gobs of money to fix my mistake. Um... I asked if there were any other options and she said not really. So here I am, on Randy's laptop, laptop-less myself, known for being the breaker of the laptop.

But at least I know that mistakes happen. It will be fine. It is just stuff. Life is too short to worry about it. It could happen to anyone. Right?

Back to School...Again!

I went back to school today after being out sick all last week. The to-do list I have right now is very long but I know I can get caught up in the next few days. I am really lucky to have a great aide and even a student teacher who works in our room 15 hours a week. Everyone was really supportive and encouraging in welcoming me back to school. 1/2 of my students were out sick today and one went home with a sore throat in the middle of the day- yikes! I just had 5 students in the afternoon. Something really must be going around! I talked to the health clerk at my school and she said her daughter had a similar experience and they were pretty sure she had the swine flu. Crazy!

Marley update: her ears look a little better but she is still desperately trying to avoid me whenever I have drops in my hands! She loved having her mama home all week when we were sick together.

Each day gets a little better and I am praying to be completely rid of this soon! :)

He is worth it ALL

Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God.
We listened to a message last night that we had missed at church. I never cease to be convicted of something when I listen to a message. I am convicted to love God more than anyone/anything, and to seek Him and His Kingdom FIRST. This is a command. He doesn't want a little time or focus here and there whenever we can spare it. It needs to be ALL ABOUT HIM. When I think of life, I almost laugh at the silliness of some situations in relation to Him and eternity. Most of life is silliness. He is all that matters. Life is short. A dust. A vapor. We are here one day and gone the next. When we are gone, where do we go? Well, there is Heaven and there is hell. Both are real places. Both are possibilities. Depending on how we live our lives and who we live them for, we will go to one or the other. What a sobering thought. God is loving and does not want to send the wicked to hell, but He is also just and His wrath is real. REAL.

I woke up thinking of Him and singing praises to Him. I love Jesus and am so thankful for his gift of amazing grace. As I seek Him FIRST, I find a peace that does transcend all understanding. He alone provides the peace I so desperately desire. He is worth turning my back of the things of this world. He is worth giving up anything to follow Him. He is worth me giving up control. He is worth IT ALL.

There is a song that goes:

"Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin has left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow."

Movies

Have you heard about "Red Box?!" They are these movie rental boxes at grocery stores where you can rent movies for $1 a day! At a movie rental place we used to pay almost $5 a movie, and therefore rented very few. So since I have been sicky the past 4 days I have spent a whopping $5 in movie rentals from Red Box. Not too shabby! (The price that is- not the movies. The movies were mostly really bad!) So happy movie renting! :)

Sick

Yuck. I've been sick. Fever. Soup. Sore throat. Thera Flu. Sleep. Using sick days. Icky. Lots of movies. No fun.

What makes matters worse is that Marley is sick too. Pawing at her ears. Lots of gross wax. Red. Yucky. Needs to go to the vet. Shakes her ears a lot. Poor pup.

I miss work. I miss getting out of my pj's. I miss the fresh air.