Thanksgiving and Black Friday, Fridayyy!

I hope you all had a lovely thanksgiving. I sure did.

Our turkey was delishhhish. :)

Black Friday was so fun! It was also very tiring, but I think it was worth it.

We went to Target at about 11:20ish...and waited in line for them to open at 12am.

There were many people in line!

We also got free luna bars in line..:) It tasted like thin mints.

Rach with her luna bar

Waiting in the Target line!

We ended up staying out until like 6:30am!

We went to...

-Target

-Walmart

-Old Navy

-Macy's

-...took a mini nap in the car..haha

-Sears

-H&M

We even got these coupons for being some of the very first people there!! SWEET! We were so stoked.

I'm going to hesitantly admit that I went back to the mall today. Bath and Body works was having some pretty ridiculous sales! I saved like $50..!

Disclaimer: I'm not usually this in to shopping...something came over me this year

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! :D

I am SO pumped for Black Friday this year. I don't think I've ever experienced going at midnight....or 4am...for that matter, but I hope to this year! I'm so stoked.

Hopefully I won't be as crazy as that lady.

but I seriously think that's a great idea..!

Gobble gobble gobble

I'm hooomee. :)

Currently sitting on my bed and listening to the new Justin Bieber Christmas cd. It's rather good.

I don't know about you, but I am SO excited that it's time for Thanksgiving!!! It's one of my favorite Holidays. I love the chance to come home, and to have off for a few days from school.

This morning Amanda and I went and got massages at a place in Millersville because we had coupons. It was glorious. It felt amazing, but it also kind of hurt... I have a bunch of knots and I guess I'm really sore in some spots... but..it was great, none the less. :)

This is a picture of me as a turkey...:) haha. At school yesterday I was helping out, sort of,...in a 3rd grade classroom, and they were making these turkeys in disguise, so I made one too...I made it look like myself. HA. I'm aware that it is pretty ridiculous, but the kids said it was REALLY good. Gotta love 3rd grade ;)

I've been a little more occupied at school... I helped some teachers grade some papers on Monday, and then Tues morning I walked around a little bit. People didn't really need help though since it was such a low-key morning. (I had a couple kinder classes in the PM)

Thanks for saying prayers about the job, I feel better when I keep God at the forefront. (duh...probably because that's the way God intended it..;)

some randoms..

-I'm addicted to words with friends again...(thank you Amanda.)

-Every time I see someone who's hair is even remotely long, I find myself judging whether or not it is long enough to donate. haa And if it is, I think to myself, they could donate that... yeah. weird.

-I'm trying to turn myself into a runner. I want to stay fit...and I think I could stand to lose a few pounds..

-I have SUCH a longing for my own classroom...!! ahhh I cant. wait.

-The whole concept of a library just makes me feel so happy inside. Does that make me a nerd?..ha. I love to read! Yeah...I'm a nerd.

I'm so thankful for my God who has saved me and calls me His own.

Thankful for my friends and family.

A place to call home. (more than one place I can call home, at that)

A job. with benefits.

Warmth.

soo...much to be thankful for. I'm still writing out my 1000 thankfuls in a journal. I think I'm up to about 70 something... but I know it goes way beyond that even!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Perspective

You need God's perspective.

That's something valuable I have taken away from this weekend.

Remember how I said I didn't have the best day on Friday?

Sometimes, I just can't help feeling negative about my job. Satan has been getting in my brain real easily, and telling me that I have no purpose there, that there's no point... I felt way insecure...and I have to go and do basically nothing again tomorrow. I'm frustrated.

(you should know this though) what I didn't say before is that it is something that the principal is working on... so eventually, my time should be filled with other things... but for now this is where I'm at.

At R and R on Saturday Jenny talked about how we can be on one of two buses. You are either on the bus of your situation, OR the bus of the spirit.

I learned that I need to be living IN God, not IN my situation. Instead of feeling sorry for myself sometimes, while working, I need to remember that Jesus is with me and that HE is greater. He has a purpose.

When we are living in our situations, essentially we are the ones driving the bus... (it's a tour bus...did I say that? ha) so we here our OWN commentary and voice. However, when GOD is leading the bus, you hear HIS voice, and His commentary, not the other way around. I wrote down that " your vision is skewed when you're sitting in your situation". So true.

When we are living IN the circumstance it's hard to see anything else... my view of things are skewed when I'm focused mainly on them and not on God.

She also said how it is so easy for us to see our selves and our situation, but we don't automatically see our Savior. Don't let the situation have the say, let GOD have the say on your situation.

It was very refreshing :) I also had a good cry while there...but we won't talk about that ;)

You may remember how I have been looking for a church since I've moved here.. Well I think I have found the one that I'll stick with. :) I wasn't so sure a few weeks ago.. but I tried to put myself out there a little more, and I truly love it! It's a big church... but the adult fellowship group (you'll here me refer to this as ABF) is what makes it so special. The people are wonderful and I'm definitely still getting to know them (duh) but now that doesn't seem so impossible as I once thought. I feel like I fit there, and it's a great feeling.

Excited to relax today. :)

Now and then

One of my most favorite things about keeping a blog, is the ability to be able to look back and see how I truly felt and what was going on at any given day in the past year or so.

It's always amazing. I don't know about anyone else, but I totally get encouraged by my own words..! ha. Anyone else ever experience that?

I saw someone's fb status about how she's just taken a final... I remember that she has to take them now because she's a junior block student like I was at this time last year... about to go into field placement. I was curious how I might have been feeling at this time last year.. so I took a peek.

I didn't say nearly as much (barely anything actually...) about my finals as I would have thought. BUT at this time last year I was going through some major anxiety about the future. I was so focused on where to live, what to do... it was so scary for me because I didn't know what God had in store.

but ALAS! Here I am today! A year later and still OKAY. I'm alive, I made it through the transition of graduation. I have a place to live... and God IS good.

In another post from November last year I was seriously depressed. I don't know how long you've been reading, but you might remember, I got depressed pretty frequently. I'm so thankful that those feelings are few and far between these days (I think my anxiety meds play a big role in that..)

It was encouraging to go back and read those posts today because, honestly, I didn't have a great day. Some days, I have a TON of down time..( days 5,6,1) and I literally have nothing to do. It gets really frustrating and by the end of the day I was basically running out of there because I couldn't take it any longer.. (I think the fact that it's Friday had something to do with that too)

THEN....wait for it..

On my way out the door that I always leave from, the alarm went off. You've got to be

k i d d i n g

me right? yeah. that happened. I don't have a key to turn it off either.

Anyway...I read this from my blog last year and was encouraged:

I really heard God's voice this morning saying "COME TO ME IN ALL TIMES!!"
He wants me to come when I'm anxious. He wants me to come when I'm fearful. He wants me to come when I'm lonely. He even wants me to come when I'm bitter. Or when I'm angry, or even jealous. God WANTS ME TO COME! At ALL TIMES! Whatever it is I'm doing or feeling, it doesn't matter, He wants it. He wants me. There is nothing He can do if I choose to keep those things in my heart. He can't grow those roots in me if I don't bring these things.

How completely perfect?

What a great reminder that God even wants me to come to him with this.

I left feeling a tad frustrated and way insecure (again that feeling of not being needed..it creates insecurity for me...) and God is like...come to me. I want even this. I know how you're feeling.

But you know, what's awesome about this job, is that I still believe God wants me there. And I take comfort in that often. People at work ask me if I like it...if I wished I would have stayed on the sub list.. but it's not really about that.

I KNOW with my whole heart that this is where I am supposed to be, and so this is where I am. (and where I WANT to be)

It's a neat thing when you're in God's will.

I hope you can take some comfort in these things today.

God had my life on the right road last year when I was struggling to see how the pieces fit, and He has it now, still.

:)

**And now I will enjoy my weekend of fellowship at RR, hiking with ABF, babysitting, and RELAXING! Let the fun commence.

Relax?! what's that?

umm...WHY is it so hard for me to just sit and relax. Seriously...

I was on my feet all day today... then went to the gym after school, and when contemplating what to do with my evening.... I decided to bake..

bad choice.

It always takes much longer than expected...and I am so wiped out now from standing and making those little things. (pumpkin pie cups..hah)

My back hurts..:( And now I'm grumpy..ha

I really don't get why I can't just lay around sometimes and do nothing.

(ahh but THEN there are times when aallll I want to do is lay around....)

It's a mystery people.

Face lift.

SO......

My blog got a face lift! And...I just l o v e i t. I'd always kind of wanted something cute and unique but I have no clue how to do all that design stuff... believe me, I've tried and failed. So, I had someone else do it for meee. :) I'm happy with the end product, I must say.

I just love blogs, and blogging...and feeling connected to other people by reading their blogs. I seriously wish I had more time to do it because I could spend hours looking for new blog reads... I just don't have that kind of time.

This past weekend I went home. Like HOME, home. I loved my life. It was so relaxing and just what I needed. I didn't want to leave.

The church situation at home is a little weird. I was going to a church that my mom had started attending also...but now she goes somewhere else...and well, I didn't go anywhere.

Instead, I spent time at home checking my own heart, prayerfully.

I really heard God telling me to just "let go". "Let go of this grip, you have on everything"..He said.

I was praying about a bunch of things, and I heard that clearly, that I have a grip on these things and I just need to let them go. I have such control (or like to pretend I do)...but God is like...stop. Let go. Put all of it at the cross. I WILL guide you. I WILL lead you. I WILL provide. I WILL comfort. I KNOW your heart, your life, what makes you tick. Just let. go.

It was refreshing.

I need to be spending more time in God's word.

Not because I NEED to, to be accepted. I'm past the point of believing that lie...but I truly want to. My soul is thirsty for God and His words... I just let these distractions have free reign.

I'm working on it...for sure.

Hope you're off to a swell start.

Iphone dump

This is my first ever iphone dump! I usually never have a consecutive amount of pictures taken in a short amount of time....if that makes sense. But now I DO! And I have been dying to share them with you!

Last Friday I cooked a pumpkin for the very first time. It was an experience. Definitely fun, but took up more time than I was expecting.

Here is a picture of all the seeds that I got from the pumpkin! I cooked them up and used a recipe for the spices. They were yummy but next time I'll try a different recipe.

The pumpkin baking. It smelled soooo good.

Made lots of pumpkin things. :) This is pumpkin oatmeal. Mmm. Also made cookies, and pasta..

Tissue paper poofs that I spent last weekend making for my classroom. They are now hanging from the ceiling and look pretty darn cool. If I do say so myself...

The big bulletin board that I re-did. The keyboard and blue paper were there, and I re-did the stuff around it. Before this, it was a sea theme.

Close up of the big owl. :) I made this guy from butcher paper. (And you better believe he will make it to my real classroom someday!)

Close up of the tree. I printed little owls and stuck them in the tree. I thought about leaves, but I kind of like it the way it is.

So that's that! I wanted to put a picture of the football hat I crocheted for Ben for his 1 year bday but blogger is being weird now so oh well.

At least you got to see all the rest of the goodness..;)

I wish I had more time these days.... I feel like I do so much. It gets frustrating being busy every evening! I know it's my choice but still... This is my first free evening this week.

Today at school the PTO made us a soup and casserole lunch. It was delicious and the perfect day for it. It's been rainy here today.

I'm going home this weekend and I'm pretty stoked.

I don't know quite how long it has been...but I want to say it was September the last time I was home... and whenever the last time was I think I stayed for like...a day. So...I'm glad to go home and relax.

More updates at a later time. :)

Listening

I wanted to update this forever ago, I've been so busy... and then Saturday THIS past Saturday, I WAS going to get to sit down and actually blog, but then we lost power! gahh.

We lost power for about 30 hours. We had a very strange October snow storm here in PA. No fun... it was no fun at all.

So lot's has happened since my last post.

I had my interview with LD school district and it went really well! I got the job. I am now a computer aide at an elementary school!

It's just amazing really, how it all worked out and I'm comforted by the fact that I know this is where God wants me. (although I don't know why)

I had applied for it because my friend who works in the district mentioned it to me. Otherwise I wouldn't have thought twice about applying for an aide position.

I didn't here anything for about a week or so, and had started to think nothing would come out of it. Then, one Monday I was subbing in the district (for only like the second time) and the lady who does the sub calls just happened to work at THIS specific elementary school. She came into the room when the students had technology and asked me if I am "good with this stuff" because SH needed a sub to fill in until they found a new computer aide. So I of course, was like Yes! I applied for that! So...that's how I got to be subbing there for about a week-ish.

They called one day and asked me to interview, and the rest is history.

I was very unsure about it all. I prayed about it a lot. Where I once had feelings of uneasiness and frustration, I started to feel peace and excitement about the position. My mind became much more open to it, and that's how I just knew it was God's little push because I had been praying.

I have days where I really like it. (today I just feel all out of sorts for some reason...probably unrelated to the job)

Today I didn't have any classes in the lab so I spent the day decorating and stuff. I feel like I didn't get THAT much accomplished for how much time I put in, which is frustrating.

I'll post pictures once I finish the big bulletin board. I'm hoping it will look as awesome as I'm picturing in my head. I have a bunch of ideas but it takes a lot of time to make stuff from scratch!

Remember how I applied to about a million places at the mall?? Well I finally heard back from one! I was starting to think I wouldn't hear back from anyone since it had been a couple of weeks...but Christmas Tree Hill called, and I had an interview there Tuesday night. It went really well. I think I might get it.. I'm nervous about all the driving b/t school and the mall though, which I didn't really put too much thought into until recently. We'll see.

On another note, I just feel kind of crappy right now. I don't know why... I feel so tired and lethargic, and just a little depressed? weird.. I guess I could be pmsing... sorry TMI hah

Sometimes I think I really have a need/want to be needed... and when I don't feel needed it makes me feel a little sad. I don't know why...I'm just trying to figure myself out. Do you ever do that?

I'm pretty sure I'm chopping my hair this weekend. It's really long. Longer than I've had it since I was like 15. I'm donating it and I'm really excited to get it cut. Long hair is hard to take care of!

Well now that I have successfully rambled... I'll stop. ;)

Hope you've had a grand week friends.