Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

God has been so good to us today. After waking up at 7 AM and waking the rest of my family by saying “IT’S CHRISTMAS!!!” we all gathered downstairs to open our presents and excitedly see if we had good Skype service. I was not feeling hopeful after the call was dropped twice, but the saying is “Third time’s a charm” right? Dad was able to watch all of us open our presents and it was the next best thing to him actually being there.

If you know me well, then you know that my newfound obsession is the sitcom Friends. I started watching it when I got to school and have been booking through each season like nobody’s business. Therefore, the best present I got today was a coffee mug that says “Central Perk” and looks just like the mugs they drink out of on the show. I was very excited!! I cannot wait to sit on my little couch at school, watch Friends and drink coffee out of my “Central Perk” coffee mug. Of course homework will get in the way, but I will have to work out a date night for me, my coffee and my Friends.

Another favorite out of the presents I got for Christmas would be all of the books! Me and books have a strong bond. I love reading anything and everything; however, this does not include text books. That is one of the downfalls of college…there is no time to read for pleasure. Usually I read one book at a time, but here lately I have gotten good at reading several different books and still being able to keep track of each story line and everything else in between. I am reading 4 different books right now: “Mrs. Lincoln” which is a book on the life of Mary Todd Lincoln, “Boundaries in Dating” which is a great book that helps you develop self-control in healthy dating relationships so you’re better able to find and commit to a marriage partner (I highly recommend this book), “Sherlock Holmes”, and “Love Finds you in North Pole Alaska” which is a Christian novel my Mom gave me that so far is pretty good. I need to get a move on and finish off a few books before going back to school.

I hope that all of my friends and family have had as good of a Christmas as me and my family have. God has given us incredible strength to get through the holidays without our family all together. The following days may drag and seem to take forever, but I know that in time the deployment will be over and all 6 of us will be together again. Until that time, God will continue to keep us all safe and anxiously awaiting the beginning of February.  

Christmas is the best!!!

At the moment, I am having a hard time putting down my Mom’s chex mix long enough to type up a blog post.  It’s so good!  One of the best things about Christmas time is all of the yummy food there is to eat! I am so excited about the holidays.  The one thing that would make this perfect would be if my Dad were here.  We only have 46 days left!!! How exciting!!

Yesterday I finished off the rest of my finals and I am officially done with my first semester at Regent University.  What a good feeling.  I love my school so much! I am so thankful that that is where I am right now.  I feel like even though it is a Christian school I am still being challenged so much in my walk with God.  After all, you shouldn’t just take something you hear for what it is, but you should always dig deep into God’s word and look it up for yourself.  I would much rather be challenged than not, therefore, Regent is the best school ever.  Not to mention, the people there are awesome!!

Last night me and Hayley and my Mom went with our choir to a retirement home to sing Christmas carols.  There was a woman there who was 102 years old.  Isn’t that unbelievable?  It was so fun singing there and I couldn’t stop thinking about how I wished I were singing Christmas carols at my Grandmas nursing home just for her.  I miss her and wish we were able to see her more often.

Over Christmas break I was supposed to work some.  I stopped working after I started school but was going to work over my Christmas break to keep my name in the payroll system so that once summer hit, I wouldn’t have to get rehired.  If I haven’t mentioned it before, I work at Kinder Care Learning Center.  It is the best job ever! I love it so much! The kids are so much fun.  I have kept a journal since I was 9 years old and was looking back in one of them one day and read that I said that I hoped when I got a job it would be a job that I loved so much and that I would never dread going into work every day.  That is exactly what Kinder Care was for me.  A job I loved and was so passionate about!! And it made me so certain that I am studying the right thing in school and I want to be a teacher more than anything.  Unfortunately yesterday I got some sad news.  My boss let me know that the managers of Kinder Care have become stricter that usual and said that anyone who hasn’t work for 24 hours within the last quarter should be booted from the payroll system.  I lost my job at Kinder Care.  I was devastated.  My dream come true job is no longer mine.  I know that my boss would hire me back in a heartbeat, but I would not be hired soon enough to be able to work over my break.  But, I will most definitely be stopping by sometime soon so that I can see everyone and all of my little kiddos. 

Tonight is the dress rehearsal for our Christmas cantata at church.  It is going to be a swell time!  I better go get ready for that!  Adios!!

Just a few thoughts before bed

I’ve learned that how well your observation hours go all depends on the teacher you are placed with.  It is either going to be super awkward, or you’re going to love it and learn so much.  Thankfully my experience was the later.  I absolutely loved it and learned so much.  I was placed with the most amazing teacher who I admire so much.  She made teaching and handling situations in the classroom look so easy.  She absolutely amazed me.  On Friday I had to complete 4 hours.  So, I got up at 6 AM, fought traffic and made it there just in time to get my 4 hours done.  I was there over lunch time and sat next to this little boy who was full of questions for me.  “What’s your favorite food?”  What’s your favorite drink?”  “How old are you?”  “What time does the bell ring at your school?”  He was so cute and so funny.  He didn’t really understand the concept of college and so I was explaining to him that after college is when you get a job and start working.  He looked at me and said “Wow! When I am in college you’re gonna have a job!!” I sure would hope so! ; ) 

So, our school supports an organization called Invisible Children.  There is an invisible war in Africa that is led by a man by the name of Joseph Kony and he is terrorizing 4 different countries.  It is the longest running conflict on the continent and the soldiers are children that Joseph Kony has abducted and forced to fight.  Invisible Children is a movement seeking to end this conflict and bring the children back to their homes.  Invisible Children is seeking to rebuild their schools, educate future leaders, and to provide jobs in Northern Uganda.  In order to raise money for Invisible Children our school hosted a walk-in lock-in at a nearby school.  We paid to participate and the money is going to be used towards Invisible Children.  At 10 last night a group of us from Regent walked over to the school and stayed up all night long and returned to school at 8 AM.  We had an amazing time of Praise and Worship that I will not soon forget.  There is nothing like singing music to God in a gym with a ton of your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  I met lots of new people, which was nice.  It was a really great night.  Once 6 AM hit, staying awake became very difficult and only a handful of people stayed up, me being one of them.  As soon as I got back to school I crashed and slept for a good while.

Unfortunately after I woke up, I had finals to worry about.  School is now going to get even more hectic than last week.  I have exams on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  I was working on my History final and was so overwhelmed by the insane study guide given to me by my teacher.  There are 65 short answer questions that I have to be able to answer Who? What? Where? Why?, and When? about, and then I also have to be able to give the historical importance of the term.  Well, after figuring out all of this information each answer is about 10 lines long.  Then there are also 5 essay questions.  And, did I mention only 5 short answer questions and 2 essay questions are going to be on the exam?  I don’t know how I will even have time to study for my other exams with this one on my plate. 

Well, I am off to bed because I can hardly keep my head up and it hurts from all of the memorizing. 

Goodnight!

Everyday is a great day with God by my side

I had more observation hours today and it went great.  I took tons of notes, and not because I had to but because I wanted to.  This teacher has so many good ideas and I don’t want to forget any of them.  I watched the kids during their PE this morning and they ran around this huge track and I must say I was impressed.  I told this kid that he ran really fast and he looked at me and said “No I didn’t! It took me like, 60 years!!”  Somebody has picked up on exaggeration early in life. ; )  Another kid asked me what my name was and I when I told HIM (keep in mind, this was a boy, not a girl!) it was Jana he said “Hmmm…it sound just like Hannah Montana.”    Not exactly the kind of person I want to be compared to, and not the response I expected out of a 5 year old boy.  Hahaha!  I look forward to what kind of funny stuff I will hear them say, because they are hilarious!!

I have to get a background check done for my observation hours I am doing and today I had to go to the Police Department to get fingerprinted.  It was quite the adventure.  It was so cool seeing police officers come out of the building with shiny gold badges like they wear in the movies.  It also was kinda freaky though, because there were lots of strange people around that made me quite uncomfortable.  Let’s just say that police stations have come a long way since Andy Griffith.  Once I finally found my way to the office upstairs, gave the man my ID and was handed the paperwork, the man decided to tell me they only accepted cash.  This was going to be a problem.  I ended up having to go to City Hall across the street because they had an ATM.  This is about when I started to get frustrated because I forgot my pin number AGAIN and had to call my sister to remind me what it was but I could hardly hear her because just about every employee in City Hall was standing in front of a huge Christmas tree in the lobby wearing a bright red or green sweater singing Christmas carols.  Finally I got what I needed and was able to go and get fingerprinted.  I have to say some of the coolness was diminished when I found out they just scan your hand these days and you don’t get to use good ole black ink, but it was still cool enough.  It’s something I have never done before, so it was fun even though it did make me feel like a criminal or something. 

I had my last lecture today for my History class I have been taking this semester.  I am so happy that I have no more lectures from Professor Xiong.  Can’t pronounce her name? Neither can her students.  In fact, nobody knows what she is saying half the time because of her thick accent.  It has made passing this class quite a challenge but I am hoping I can still make that happen.  Go figure I would end up with the teacher with an accent.  I am the worst at understanding accents.  Half the notes I take I end up scratching out because I can’t understand the key word in the sentence she is saying.  Hopefully next semester all of my teachers will speak very clear English.  : )

I talked to my grandpa on the phone today.  It was so great to talk to him and hear how well he and my grandma are doing.  It was really funny because he was upset I didn’t call him on his new cell phone.  I think he is really excited about having one because I told him I didn’t even know his number but I would get it from my Mom and he said “Can I give it to you right now?”  But he made sure to tell me not to ever leave him a message because he doesn’t know how to check his voicemail.  He said, “If I don’t answer just hang up, don’t even worry about leaving me a message because I won’t ever hear it.”  Haha! He is so funny! 

Thank you Lord for a busy yet fun and adventurous day! Because every day is a good day with you by my side!

Things to look forward to!

Bus-y [biz-ee]

Adjective, bus-i-er, bus-i-est, verb, bus-ied, bus-y-ing

Adjective

1.       Actively and attentively engaged in work or a pastime: busy with her work

2.       Not at leisure; otherwise engaged: He couldn’t see any visitors because he was busy.

3.       Full of or characterized by activity: a busy life

Yeap, that just about describes what my life is going to be like for the next two weeks.  Today was so busy that I just finished my homework at 12 AM.  Although my day was busy it was also a fun day.  My alarm clock going off in the AM didn’t make me very happy, and it usually doesn’t take me long to be completely awake and ready to start my day.  Today I was feeling pretty sluggish.  Especially since I could barely get out of my bed.  Saturday night was the Regent Christmas ball and after dancing for 2 and a half hours straight my legs are a little (actually a lot) on the sore side.  I could barely walk this morning and was not happy when I remembered I needed to dress professional today and wear heels.  I am sure that me trying to go down the stairs in heels and sore calves was a funny sight this morning.

I had to dress professional because today I began the process of my 10 hours of observations I have to complete this week for my Introduction to teaching class.  I have been so excited about starting my observations.  After classes I rushed back to my room, made a sandwich, grabbed the paperwork I needed, sat in the car for what seemed like forever waiting for my GPS to find a satellite and finally was on my way to Luxford Elementary to observe the Kindergarten classroom.  Boy was I ever in for a treat.  The entire thing made me so excited to start teaching!!  I had so much fun!  The teacher I was assigned to was very nice and took time to sit down with me and answer any question I had for her.  I had tons!!  The kids were absolutely adorable and made me miss my job at the daycare center back home.  I have no idea how the teachers can keep such a straight face all the time because there were a few times that those kids had me laughing hysterically.  They truly do say the funniest things ever!!  Because I am having a hard time deciding exactly what grade I want to teach, this kind of helped me to have a better idea what levels of learning certain grades are on.  I took in everything, including all of the awesome decorations this teacher had up in her classroom, storing it away for future ideas when I have a class of my own.  I cannot wait to do more observations this week and to learn more about becoming a teacher.  Doing these types of things really lights that passion I have inside of me for teaching and for kids.  I am so excited about my future. 

Because of the time I am spending in classes and at Luxford Elementary school doing observations, it is causing me to not be able to get homework done until late in the day, which lead to late nights of studying.  But I have a very early morning tomorrow and a long day ahead of me, so I need to go and get some shut eye!

Goodnight! 

Math, Meetings & Sunshine

So, let me just begin this post by stating the fact that I am not good at Math.  I am not good at the subject, but I also am not fond of my class either because it holds so much embarrassment for me.  My teacher allows all of the students in class to use this website called mathway.com where you type in your math problem and it gives you the answer.  It gives no explanation of how it got the answer; it just gives it to you just like that.  She always says “you’re going to use websites like that when you have to use math in everyday life so why not use it now?”  I have to say, I am glad she feels that way because it makes getting an A on a math assignment about 1,000 times easier.  However, when we get to class on Monday and Wednesday morning and she wants us to put problems up on the board, I have no idea how to even begin to solve them because I used that website.  Therefore, I always look like an idiot because I don’t ever know the answers, and I am in class with all kinds of business majors and other people that are geniuses at math.  Today I worked so hard and finally got the right answer on the problem that was assigned to me (or so I thought) and went to put it up on the board only to discover I did the wrong one.  And might I add the teacher didn’t have a problem with telling all of my classmates this.  The problem I was supposed to do, I never figured out and when I asked the girl sitting next to me for help she looked at me like I was stupid.  Onto another embarrassing math story….(I could go on forever with these, I have a lot!)

Every time we have class a student has to give a devotion before class starts.  Monday was my turn.  Over Thanksgiving break one of my Facebook friends posted a video that was really amazing and I knew immediately that that was what I wanted to share for my devotion.  A man by the name of Zac Smith was diagnose with cancer and basically the video is him giving his testimony and he talks about how he doesn’t know how long he is going to live or if he will win his battle with cancer, but whether he lives or dies he knows that God is GOOD! I loved it because I thought it taught such a good lesson on not taking things for granted and living every day as if it were your last.  Apparently my classmates didn’t agree with me.  They thanked me for sharing such a depressing video to start off class with.  I guess maybe they didn’t see the message that I saw through the video?  Afterwards I sat back down and started nervously playing with my earrings only to discover I was wearing two different ones.  One small gold hoop and one big silver one.  I know they all thought I was ridiculous.  Hahaha!  This class makes me very eager for Christmas break. 

I had a meeting tonight at school.  It was for all Elementary education majors.  It was very informative but made me so overwhelmed about all that I have ahead of me.  But, I am so glad that I even know what I want to do with my life.  I see so many people that are in that struggle of determining what they want to major in and do with their lives and my heart aches for them because it’s such a huge decision.  That is when I stop and thank God that He has always placed that desire in my heart to be a teacher.  I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember.

Everyone here at Regent has been so busy because finals are coming up.  I have so many projects due and exams to study for in the weeks ahead of me.  But I know that when it all is done I get to go home for a break.  I can’t believe that in the two short weeks I have home for Christmas break we celebrate Christmas and New Years.  Time is going so fast and I can’t believe this year is almost over and before I know it I will soon be done with my 3^rd year of college. 

Today I was very thankful for the sunshine.  Yesterday was such a cold and wet day.  Every time I see that it is raining outside I put on my rain boots and the sun always ends up coming out and there aren’t any puddles and I just look, well, dumb.  So yesterday I didn’t put them on because it didn’t look like it was raining anymore and boy was I ever wrong. It was raining so much and my feet got absolutely soaked.  I’ve decided I will always wear rain boots if I see even the slightest bit of rain because having dry feet is so much better than having wet shoes and sitting through hours of classes freezing your butt off.   

This will have to be the end of my blog for tonight.  I gave myself only a short break from writing my paper to do something fun and this is what I chose to do, and now I must get back to homework. ..      

My Thankful Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays ever, and it always is a good reminder of all that I have to be thankful for.  Not only family and friends, but also, just the fact that I am a child of God and that He loves me enough that He died for me.  What an amazing thing to be thankful for.  I have my whole life ahead of me and I cannot wait to see where God will lead me and how He will use me. 

This Thanksgiving was a bit different than our usual Thanksgivings.  There were only 5 people at our table instead of 6.  We tried Skyping with Dad while we cooked in the kitchen, but service was awful and so that complicated things a bit, so we didn’t get to talk much.  I am proud to say that since my cooking skills have improved, this is the first Thanksgiving that I have no just made the sweet tea and set the table.  I actually cooked, and nothing was burnt or ruined. I’m getting good at this. ; )

Once we all were ready to eat our dinner we got out the laptop and called Dad on Skype because he wanted to pray with us before our meal.  It was an emotional event of course.  Dad isn’t just the turkey carver, but he is the head of our home.  He provides for us and he is the glue that holds us all together.  But we are so thankful that over the last 9 years of being in the Army Dad has only deployed twice.  We are so thankful for that and know that we are on the home stretch. 

After eating until we were stuffed we played games and watched movies.  It was such a nice relaxing afternoon.  I even took a little snooze.  Usually our tradition is to set up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving, but we were all sitting around and decided, why not today?  Let’s start setting things up right now.  So, we got all of our Christmas decorations out of the attic, put on the Christmas music and started un-wrapping everything.  Well, were we ever in for a surprise!  After opening up boxes and pulling stuff out I noticed a piece of paper laying in one of our Christmas boxes.  Immediately I noticed the name signed at the end of the letter that was written and it said one word: Dad.  So, I called everyone into the room and we read a note that my Dad hid for us to find on the day we set up our Christmas decorations.  It was so sweet!! I am so thankful for having my Mom and brother and sisters with me this Thanksgiving and that they will be with me for Christmas.  I can’t even fathom being alone in Afghanistan, like my Dad is.  He is truly my hero.  I have been praying for him so much and that time will go quickly for him and that he won’t be too lonely over the holidays. 

I am so thankful for such a great Thanksgiving.  God has blessed me with the most amazing family I could ever imagine, and such great friends who are always there for me and always love me no matter what.  One of my teachers challenged all of us students this week to make a list of 100 things we are thankful for.  What a challenge.  I think I may do it, although the day is almost over.  After listing all of the basics you really have to think hard about the things you are thankful for.  I always just think of obvious things like family and friends and my house, but what about things like just breathing, or being able to worship my Savior freely.  So many thing I take for granted, and I can’t wait to make my list of all of the things I am thankful for, and to really think hard about it.  I don’t want to take anything for granted.  I want to be so thankful for everything I have and everything I am blessed with every day and not just on Thanksgiving. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Great weekend and things to look forward to

I often don’t have the best of luck.  It makes life quite amusing and, I must admit, I love it. I am sweaty and out of breath!!  But, let me tell you why.  Regent has two dorm buildings.  Each one has only 4 washers,  so let me just tell you, it is a rare occasion to get more than one washer at a time and it turns laundry day into a huge event after lugging laundry up and down the stairs several times.  After getting back to school from a weekend at home I had a bunch of laundry to do and went downstairs to check if there were any washers free and ALL 4 WERE EMPTY!!! So you know what I did? I ran as fast as I could up to my room, sorted my laundry and ran back downstairs with a basket so full of laundry I could hardly carry it just to find that all the washers were full except for one.  So I had to carry most of the laundry back up to my room again, but I consider myself lucky compared to the guy using the washer next to me who forgot to get the gum out of his pockets before doing his laundry.  It was a huge mess that I am so thankful I did not have to deal with.  Trust me; there is always a bright side to everything! 

It was a really fun weekend at home.  It’s always nice to go home to my Mom’s smiling face and home cooked meals and to have all of us siblings together.  Saturday we spent the day with friends from our college Bible study back home (Newport News).  It was such a beautiful day that we spent all of it outside playing croquette, corn hole, Frisbee and lots of other fun stuff.  We got so into Frisbee at one point that we had 6 going at one time.  It was a major challenge for me considering I can’t throw a Frisbee straight to save my life.  It was a very fun day.  I always miss my friends back home when I am at school.  They are so fun! 

The only thing that could have made this weekend better was if Dad were home.  We had a great Skype date with him today after church, but it is not the same as having him here.  The deployment is almost over though and we couldn’t be happier.  I am so excited to have my Dad back home.

Over the last couple of years I have made up a bucket list of my own.  Just things that I really want to do at some point in my life.  I have marked two off of my list. 

1)      Be a counselor at a summer camp

I have always wanted to be a counselor at a summer camp.  I have had the opportunity for the last two summers to be a camp counselor at Camp Open Arms.  It is one of my absolute favorite things.  I love working with the kids to help them not only have a great time but to learn about God.  We help them not only build a relationship with God but we teach them how to have a quiet time every day and help them have a better understanding of who He is and what He has done for us. 

2)      Lead someone to Christ

This is also something that I have accomplished through Camp Open Arms.  I love having the privilege to share my love for God with these kids and it’s something I will never get tired of doing. 

I am currently working on checking off another two items on my list.

1)      Read the entire Bible

This is something I am ashamed to say I have never done before, but I am thoroughly enjoying it.  I am learning so much through reading God’s word and I have no doubt that as soon as I finish I will start over and read it through again. The second thing I am working on is:

2)      Read all of the Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I love reading The Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes! The insane brilliancy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is something I will never understand.  He is an amazing writer and I love reading all of these books. 

I am so excited about checking more things off my list.  But keep in mind these are small things off my list, and there are much bigger things I want to accomplish in life and I cannot wait to see where God leads me.          

Me and my bright ideas...NOT!

My brilliant ideas never quite turn out how I imagined them to.  If you know me well, then you know I hate exercising.  It just is boring to me and I never feel good afterwards.  It always makes me miserable because I get sore and I always just feel….well, blah! So the other day I decided that I was going to start working out.  After all, it is quite pathetic that my arms are sore after carrying groceries to my dorm room on the second floor.  Ok, not quite pathetic, VERY!!! So I started this morning.  I got up extra early and went down to the gym.  It was kinda awkward going into our small school gym to exercise and finding some of the boy’s football team intensely working out.  It made me feel even more pathetic that I was lifting tiny weights and breaking a sweat over it.  After working out I REALLY remembered why I hate working out. I felt like I was going to puke! It was not fun. So, needless to say, I am trying to decide if I will keep this up. Hopefully after a couple of weeks of working out my body will get used to my new hobby and I will have some muscle. ; )

I am really trying to work on not judging people before I really get to know them.  When I walked into class this morning there was a whole row of guys sitting at their usual table and sitting in front of them was one girl who was turned around facing them and flirting an insane amount with every one of them.  I kept rolling my eyes and thinking about how obnoxious it was to sit there having to listen to her flirt.  But then, I thought to myself:  Jana, you don’t even know this girl.  You have no clue what her life is like at home, outside of school.  Maybe this girl has a really rough life at home.  She might not even have a Dad.  What if she is just dying for some sort of male figure to pay attention to her because she’s never had someone make her feel special or loved.  You really can use that saying “Never judge a book by its cover” in any situation, including mine with this young girl.  I’ve decided that instead of judging people, I should pray for them instead.

That just about sums up my thoughts for today. I am now off to soak my aching muscles in a nice hot bath.    

Intial blog post

Welcome to my first official blog. I feel like I have erased and re-written this so many times. I guess it is nerves because I have never made a blog before and am a little frightened about posting things about myself on the World Wide Web. It also is very hard to give a nut shell of your entire life in one short introductory blog. I guess I can give this a try….

I am a middle child (sort of). I have twin sisters that are 22 and a younger brother that is 16, so I am in the middle of them. Me, Hayley and Heidi are all college students at a university in Virginia Beach. Hayley is taking online classes from home and me and Heidi are roommates in the dorms up at school, which is only 30-45 minutes away. Just enough to feel like you’re on your own, but close enough to go home whenever you want! I also have a younger brother, Nathan. Everyone always says “poor guy” because he has grown up with 3 older sisters, but honestly, I think he loves it. ; ) And I always say he will make a great boyfriend one day because he won’t mind watching chick-flicks with his girlfriend after putting up with them all these years.

My parents…words cannot even describe. I have the best parents in the entire world, and I know everyone says that, but for real, it’s true!! My Mom is so loving and caring of others and always puts them first. She homeschooled all of us kids and had so much patience with us. She is the most amazing cook, and I am trying my best to be more like that, even if I burn down the Regent dorm rooms in the process. My Dad is a Chaplain in the United States Army. He is actually serving a year term in Afghanistan right now. He has been there since February of this year and comes home February 2012. It is less than 3 months away now and I am so excited! My Dad is the most Godly person I know. He always knows just what to say to make everything better. And I love his passion for God and to share His love with other people. Put them together and you have the best parents in the entire world!

I am studying to be an Elementary Education teacher. I am so excited because my love for kids grows more and more every day. They are so funny and I can’t wait to have my own class room and students one day. Although I want to live and teach in Virginia, this isn’t where I was born and raised, which brings next, the question I dread for people to ask me. “Where are you from?” It’s so complicated because although I was born in Tennessee, I actually lived in Arkansas but all of my family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) live in Louisiana because that is where my parents are from. People try and tell me I have a country accent, but I don’t believe them. ; ) But, I can see how it could be true since I have never lived out of the south. Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia….we just can’t get away from the good ole south.

Well, that about sums up me right now. I hope when you guys read my blogs that you take something from it, whether it be a good laugh or a new insight to my ever growing love for God. I am so excited about all of this. I have been journaling since I was 9 years old and I am excited to share little bits with all of you!