A year in the Life...

Since it's, like, a requirement to do one of these, I guess I'll go ahead and cave. =)

**JANUARY**
Pretty uneventful. I booked the last bit of wedding vendors and had my bridal shower, which was a lot of fun.
Started a nanny job that didn't work out. I took a week off for my wedding and they called and let me go after that. No idea why...

**FEBRUARY**
Had my last birthday as a single gal. It was my 23rd and it was a Sunday -- Super Bowl Sunday, in fact.
Went to a job fair hosted by LU and interviewed with a few schools. Nothing came of it.

**MARCH**
We adopted Paulie. He's our first baby and so laid back. Just wish he would cuddle more...



This month was only the culmination of the biggest countdown EVER. My wedding day was amazing. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time with the wedding party and with our photographer. Love my wedding photos, too!!






We honeymooned in Branson at the Anchor Inn on the Lake and it was wonderful!!
The 17th marked the anniversary of David's death and while we were still on our honeymoon, we still took some time to remember him.

**APRIL**
Not too much going on this month. I still hadn't heard back from the gazillion schools I applied to. Got a lot of hours at the store because it was Easter.

**MAY**
I walked in my college's graduation ceremony. With my best friend of 8 years. It was nice, like a full circle, since we graduated HS together, too.
We had our annual youth service and I'm so proud of our kids!
I was at home for the first time in 7 years on the day precamp started. So weird!

**JUNE**
I received my official teaching certificate in the mail.
My favorite little girl turned three:

And my one of my oldest friends welcomed her own little girl into the world.
My car broke down and needed a new starter -- THREE times.

**JULY**
Worked on the 4th (time and a half!!) and then went to my BIL's to shoot off fireworks. In the rain. Good times.
We went to my friend's house to shoot off stuff from their firework stand.

Saw Harry Potter 6 with J and 2 friends at midnight. LOVED it.
Went to a job fair at UMSL and kind of felt like it was a waste of time. But an interview came out of it, so I guess it wasn't a complete bust.

**AUGUST**
Had my niece and nephew over a lot.
Had an interview at P-Ville. That position was put on hold, but I will start subbing for them in January.
J's car died. We've been down to one car ever since. (Thankfully, a nice lady at church who works out of the state every week let us use her Honda while she was gone each week which meant we only had to worry about rides on the weekend.)

**SEPTEMBER**
J turned 25!
I started to resign myself to the fact that I wasn't going to get a teaching job this year.
I signed up to take the PRAXIS again in Early Childhood Education in November. Got very nervous.
Totally and completely fell in love with Glee.

**OCTOBER**
I started getting more and more hours at the store, with the holiday season insanity ALREADY starting...
Our first Halloween in our house -- and NO ONE showed up. =(

**NOVEMBER**
Took the PRAXIS again. Felt like I bombed it, but then upon rehashing it with J I realized I probably didn't do so bad.
Began to wait anxiously for my test scores.
Saw New Moon at midnight with some girlfriends... Just 'cause we could.
Celebrated Thanksgiving very low key.
Worked Black Friday. Craziness!

**DECEMBER**
Still worked a LOT because of Christmas.
Found out I passed the PRAXIS. Not only that, but I blew that sucker outta the water. =)
Rehearsed EVERY STINKIN' NIGHT for our church's Christmas show, which meant I didn't see much of J. =(
Enjoyed our first Christmas together.
Adopted Sebastian from Laura. We're working on integrating the two, but for now, Paulie seems to think he's just a big toy that he can pounce on and chase...

What's in store for '10??
I have an interview on the 8th of January for a Youth in Need Home Visitor in W-Ville. Hopefully that works because I'm sooooo sick of working minimum wage.
Have to figure out what we're doing about housing by Jan. 24...
Hopefully I'll get a damn job, otherwise I'll be subbing and (possibly) going back to camp in the summer.
Our first anniversary.

Should be fun!!

Merry Christmas to all!

I posted this last year, but it's such a classic that I HAVE to post it again:



This particular clip is one of the best know clips of all Christmas specials. I love the simplicity of Linus saying the Christmas story. and then, simply, "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

I hope as you celebrate with friends and family today that you find joy in the gifts you have given and received, but that you also take a moment to remember the Ultimate gift: that found more than 2000 years ago in a manger: a tiny baby, whose blood would one day save the world.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Chrismas Music #2

I realize that I'm terrible at following through with things, LOL. I said I'd do this everyday and then... well... I didn't. Sorry.

At any rate, I think this song is appropriate for tonight, Christmas Eve. This is an original Christmas song by the prolific Chris Tomlin. I love this Christmas album for two reasons: it's a worship album above all else, and it was recorded live with some other amazing worship artists like Matt Redman and Christy Nockels. Definitely one of my favorite Christmas CDs.

This song is called Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground). He sings of the star and the journey to the baby, and then of the sacrifice that Jesus ultimately was born to make. Chris really has been given a gift from God to know what to say and how to say it in a way that reaches people. LOVE this song.



I hope you have a very blessed Christmas!

Quick Update

Other than our Christmas show, here's what's been going on in our life:

1. I'ms till struggling with underemployment. God is good, though. See # 3 to find out why.

2. I retook the PRAXIS (this time in Early Childhood Education) in November and got my score report this week. not only did I pass, but I blew that sucker out of the water. Highest score is 200 and I scored 188. Not too shabby, considering I didn't take any ECE classes at Lindenwood. This means I just have to send in paperwork to DESE to tack on certification for birth-grade 3. Woo hoo!

3. My church family is amazing. After we ran through the program yesterday morning, I returned to my purse to find a red envelope. A very thick red envelope. I opened it and inside I found four gift cards: one for Target, one for Wal Mart, one for QT, and one for Dierbergs -- each for $100. ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. I have NO idea who it's from -- they signed the card "Santa." We have our suspicions but I don't want to ask around. Jesus teaches us not to give if you're giving so others will see you and I want to do the same as a recipient. I had jsut gotten make up put on for the show and I had to try soooo hard not to cry and ruin it. Our church family is AMAZING and I really don't think we could have made it through the last year without the blessing they have been to us. God has used them immensely this year as a source of support and prayer.

4. I'm sooo excited about Christmas. That gift from the people at church made it possible for us to be able to purchase gifts for everyone whose name we pille as well as our niece and nephew. I got Kailey and DJ bible storybooks -- The Jesus Bible Storybook and My First Study Bible -- and something for my brother that I'm not revealing here since my blogs move to Facebook and he might be reading. I got Jerome a CD he's been wanting (see this entry) and a devotional he had pointed out a couple of times that he was interested in having.

5. Our friend Laura is moving out of her apartment and in with her almost-fiance who is incredibly allergic to cats. She needs a place for Sebastian, we want a playmate for Paulie, so we're adopting Sebs. She brought him over today and he wasn't very happy, LOL. Paulie was real curious and looking and everything but when Sebastian started hissing, so did Paulie. We're giving them a few days to duke it out through the door of the guest bedroom before we let them roam the house together. Our hope is that they are both so mellow that they'll get along great once they get used to each other.

Almost Christmas

Our church's Christmas program -- which has consumed a WHOLE lot of my time recently -- was this morning and alllllll of that practicing totally and completely paid off.

It was a show by Willow Creek in Chicago and when we (some of the worship team) watched it we knew it would be GREAT for this year. As we watched the DVD from WC, we could even pinpoint some of the characters. Of course, we had some obstacles to overcome. One of these of course is the fact that our church is tiiiiiiiny compared to Willow Creek. And we don't have quite as many singers. But we totally made it work.

I had a solo on Joy to the World, which I didn't realize until last week was actually the WHITNEY HOUSTON version. I was doing great before then, but when I found that out, I totally freaked out. Like, seriously?! I have to live up to WHITNEY????!!! LOL. I did awesome, though.

The whole cast did awesome. We hit all of our marks, had laughs where we were supposed to have laughs. And all around, we had a great time.

Merry Christmas Music #1

In honor of the Christmas season, and the fact that I LOVE Christmas music (not the hokey stuff, the good stuff, LOL), I'm going to present to you a song every day or two that I love love love.

The first one is called "Magnificat." It's sung by Christy Nockels on Todd Agnew's Do You See What I See? CD. What I love about this CD is that every song is sung from the perspective of someone in the Christmas Story. This particular song is sung fromt he perspective of Mary:



I didn't realize it till after I listened a couple times, but this is Scripture in song. It's taken from Luke 1:46-55, when Mary is singing about her son -- THE Son.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
My spirit rejoices in my saviour,
He has seen the humble state of my heart, and now all will call me blessed.

Praise the almighty God; he's done great things for us,
Holy is his name,
His mercy is free for those who fear his justice,
May generation to generation loudly proclaim his fame.

Oh, his fame.

He has shown the strength of his hands and brought down the mighty from their pretense,
He scattered the pride in their hearts and lifted the lowly to meet him.

Praise the almighty God; he's done great things for us,
Holy is his name,
His mercy is free for those who fear his justice,
May generation to generation loudly proclaim his fame.

Proclaim his fame.

He has filled the hungry with good things...and the rich he sent, empty, away,
He hath remembered his servant Israel, and we will remember him always, always.

Praise the almighty God; he's done great things for us,
Holy is his name,
His mercy is free for those who fear his justice,
May generation to generation proclaim,
Praise the almighty God; he's done great things for us,
Holy is his name,
His mercy is free for those who fear his justice,
May generation to generation loudly proclaim his fame,
May generation to generation loudly proclaim his name.

When Love Was Born

I am loving this song. It's by Mark Schultz and it's on the Christmas compilation by the same total (An FCS exclusive... get yours today! LOL). It's called When Love Was Born and it is WONDERFUL.

Have a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjtxpHlnNdo

In the Christmas Spirit

This is the first year I've had my own place to decorate. J and I moved into our townhouse last December 18, so when Christmas rolled around we were still basically living out of boxes, and there was no way I was going to stress myself out decorating for Christmas (not to mention we didn't even have a tree!!).

This year is a different story. I put up our tree on Sunday evening and let it stand for a while without decorations so Paulie could get used to it. Then I decorated it today -- My first day off since Thanksgiving. I want to get another set of lights and a set of those ball ornaments, but here is our first tree:




Last year my mom bought us a nativity scene set of ornaments. Check 'em out:


And did you catch who likes to sleep under the tree?

[[Leave me alone, Mom... I'm trying to sleep!]]
I'd rather he sleep under there than pull all the ornaments down.

Now, did you notice that we have no tree topper? One reason is because we just don't have one. The other is because we can't agree on what to put up there. J is a star man, and I'm partial to angels. What should we do?