Still searching...

No teacher's assistant position for me. The top salary is quite a bit below what I make now. My friend is keeping her eye out on the employment bulletin board at her school to see if there is anything else listed that I may be interested in. There will most likely be more jobs posted after the 10th day of school. They've got this 10 day rule. If there are a certain number of students on the 10th day, then positions may be added. For instance, if her mom's school has 1000 students on the 10th day, then they will most likely be adding a full time guidance clerk position. Her mom is working both the guidance clerk and the attendance clerk positions. If this happens, I will probably apply for the guidance clerk position. As of last night, it wasn't looking so great, but there's still all of next week. (The 10th day will be Friday, Sept 3). I think more than anything, I really want to have more time to spend with Andrew. I would love to work a 9-10 month job for the school district. I would also like to have more time in the afternoons to spend with him. Evenings are SO rushed at my house.

Watch this space for updates. :)

A Possible Opportunity

I've got possibly exciting news. I was talking to my teacher friend the other night and she mentioned that her principal announced that there are some positions open for teacher's assistants at her school. There are two open for kindergarten and one for special ed. She said my name popped into her head when the announcement was made. She's going to give the principal my name and number. I'm really hoping this works out for a number of reasons:

1. It will help me discover if teaching is what I really want to do.
2. I'll get all the school holidays off.
3. I understand that the benefits are good.
4. I'll have the summers off.
5. If I do go back to school, then I'll be able to take classes in the afternoon after school gets out.

My only condition right now is pay. I have to make at least what I'm making now or we'll have problems with our budget. I've been ready to leave my current job for awhile. Maybe this time it will happen.

God still answers prayers

I've got a friend who has a son just a few months older than my son. He has vision problems. About a year ago, his vision tested at -8. He's been wearing glasses and doing patch therapy for the past year. (His mom puts a patch over the good eye for a few hours a day). She asked for prayer for him Sunday night at church. She prefaced her request by saying that she was going through the Bible study Believing God and that last week, she felt God telling her that if she would bring her son up Sunday night then He would improve his vision. She did. She felt again that she needed to bring it up at Bible study last night. She did. We all prayed for her and her son last night. I got a call a little while ago from her sister-in-law that his vision went from the -8 of a year ago to 5.5 today. I'm not sure what the numbers mean, but I do know that going from negative to positive is an improvement. Praise God!

The V.P. is in town...

The V.P. is here today for a lunch/fundraiser. Clayton is one of the lucky officers blocking off roads that the V.P. will be traveling on today. He'll pretty much just sit there all day. That's my interesting news for the day.

I got myself on a committee at church. Never been a committee member before. We're working on a policies and procedure handbook for our nursery areas. Seems there isn't one in place. That will be taken care of in the next couple of months.

I'm teaching Mission Friends this year. This should be fun. The other lady with me said that if I would plan everything then she would do the actual teaching. Sounds like a plan to me. I've just got to find out if we have a book to go by. I've got posters and games, but no book to tell me about the missionaries. I can't plan/teach without a guide.

I've been thinking a lot about this going back to school thing. I'm thinking I'll probably do it. The best plan would be to wait until next fall when there are more scholarship/financial aid opportunities. I haven't yet received the information I requested, so I think my next step will be contacting the school...

So proud of myself

I drank 48 oz of water yesterday. That is not an easy thing for me to do. I've already had my first 16 oz today. I made a yummy low-fat meal last night for supper. I brought the leftovers for lunch today. Tonight's supper will be low fat stuffed shells. YUM. I can't wait.

I have never been so excited to go to the grocery store as I was last night. I couldn't wait to leave work to go grocery shopping. I was getting all the ingredients I needed to cook the meals I have planned for this week. The whole reason I was excited is that we're trying all new things this next week. I like cooking new things that I *should* like.

Oh, the other thing I'm proud of is that I spent my lunch hour walking yesterday. I went to the mall and walked the perimeter. Clayton told me last night that one lap is a mile. I plan to go back today to walk again. I may look silly walking by myself, but it's exercise and I need it!

Losing Weight

I so suck at this. I've been trying (sorta-there's my problem...only sorta trying) to lose weight for a couple months now. I keep fluctuating on my weight. I'm not able to keep it down. I've tried just watching what I eat with no guidelines. I exercised for about a month. I'm just having trouble sticking with it. My plan (new one today) is to head to the library on my lunch hour and check out a couple books on nutrition. Hopefully I can find some meal plans/recipes that will give me guidelines for healthy eating. I've decided that that is the only way I'm going to be able to stay on track.

My first start today was to lose the peanut butter M&M's on my desk. I didn't eat the first one of them today. (Thanks, GMS for the motivational questions). I've also had my first 16 oz glass of water today. I read somewhere to drink water when you're hungry and wait 20 minutes. If you're still hungry, then eat something. I'm still hungry, but since it's so close to lunch time, I'm going to wait. My lunch isn't the greatest today. I've got a ham and turkey sandwich on honey wheat bread and sour cream and onion chips. I should have brought a peach with me instead of the chips. It's time to start rethinking my eating habits. Tonight's supper is supposed to be chicken, but as of 7:00 this morning, it was frozen. I completely forgot to take it out of the freezer last night. We'll probably eat it tomorrow night.

Here's to getting info about eating healthy!

Becoming Armed and Dangerous

Oh, how last night's Bible Study affected me. We listened to Beth Moore talk about God's Word being alive and active in us. We are to 'inhale' the Word of God. Inhale as in breathe it in, keep it in our hearts. Then, we are to 'exhale' it. Exhale as in speak it. As a Christian, the only thing that will intimidate Satan is what comes out of my mouth. He's not a mind reader, so what I think about circumstances isn't going to do any good. What I must do is speak out. This truth hit me SO hard. I'm not one to say what I think/believe very often. I'm not one to pray out loud in my own personal prayers. I've been told by several people that praying out loud in their personal prayer time has done so much for their closeness with God. For some reason I'm intimidated to do it, but I asked God last night (out loud) to take away my intimidation. He did! I truly believe He heard my prayers last night and that He was right there with me as I talked to Him.

I believe with all my heart that God is doing a work in me. Why? Because there are so many things trying to get in my way, trying to distract me from what I need to be doing. What is He doing? I haven't the first clue right now. I'm playing the waiting game. And while I wait, He'll prepare me.

Thank you, God for what you are doing in me. Help me to see You in all situations in my life. Help me not to get so caught up in myself that I miss You and Your work. Amen.

Monday, Monday

I can't believe it's Monday already. The weekend flew by. Saturday morning wasn't the greatest because Andrew was cranky and I was ill. I had no help since Clayton was sleeping. Gotta love 3rd shift work. Andrew cut his nap short, thereby cutting MY nap short. He didn't want what I made him for lunch. He wanted my Kool-Aid pouch and chips. I finally got him to eat part of his pb&j and then shared the Kool-Aid and chips. After a couple more hours of agonizing crankiness/illness, we left for the pool. A friend from church and I had arranged the week before to take our kidlets to the pool she's a member of. What a blessing that was! Apparently all Andrew and I needed was to get out of the house to improve our moods. We came home happy. I walked in the door to the announcement that I only had about 45 minutes to take a shower and get dressed. WHAT?! Turns out that BIL and his wife decided to invite themselves over for supper. Fortunately, they were providing supper. I can handle that. We get along well and since they were bringing the food it made it all that much better. I ended up crashing when I put Andrew to bed. Company still there and everything. Oops.

Last night was interesting. We had a substitute preacher since ours is on vacation. Let's just say that it could have gotten really bad had anyone at our table made eye contact with another. I just about had to walk out anyway to keep from laughing out loud. We were all SO bored. I hate to say that about church, but in this case, it was so true. Ended up going out to eat at Fire Mountain grill (owned by Ryan's Steakhouse) after the service. My new friend from church joined us. We had a great time.

I really hate being used to sleeping by myself. It makes the two nights Clayton is home difficult sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I love it when he is home, but having to share the bed again is not always easy. Last night was one of those tough nights. My brain just would not shut down. I tossed and turned until 3:30 when Clayton finally decided to go to the living room. If I wasn't tossing and turning, I was having weird dreams. Hopefully tonight will be better.