Somedays...

Monday. Ugh, just the sound of it makes me sad. Today wasn't so horrible. The kids at the shetler had the day off from school so guess who got to work at 8 AM instead of Noon? Since I basically work at a daycare (no thats not my "title" and really there is more to it than that, but on days like today no one can argue with me, its a daycare), I have to follow the school schedule. So when the kids are at school I work 12-8 so I can be there when they get home and when they are not in school I am there from 8-4. I like 8-4 better for the most part (like being able to cook dinner and see Marc) but I like being able to sleep in on my 12-8 days and only seeing the kids for a few hours instead of 8.

However, today was fun. We had a wonderful organization donate tennis rackets and I have been slowly but surely teaching these inner city kids the sport of tennis. Most of them have no idea how to play and think the rackets are better used as pretend swords, but we are working on it. So today we "played" some tennis (with balls that weren't actually tennis balls on an outdoor basketball court... but hey, we do what we can). We had our Bible study, ate lunch (well they ate, I supervised), watched Chronicles of Narnia, and had coloring contests (with Veggie Tales on in the background).

There is one thing I do miss about the summer and the 8-4 workdays, the Bible studies with the kids. I miss hearing them pray and their thoughts on the story or verse of the day. It is always so refreshing. However, since during the school year most of our time is spent together after school, all of my energy is dedicated to homework and making sure they don't kill each other. But today we got a chance to have a  Bible study and a popcorn prayer. If you ever need to be blessed listen to a child pray, they are so sincere and loving and honest... everything Christianity should be. They pray for things like: mean people to have a good day, and moms to find a job, and that somehow, someway God will make a way for them to leave the shelter and live a better life. My heart breaks a little each time I hear them pray. I can't even begin to explain how much I want these children to succeed. They have faced so much in their short little lives, and it is just not fair. They are the products of a broken society, of lifetimes of bad decisions and of tragedies and struggle. I can see the attitudes and actions (good and bad) of their parents in almost every single one of them... I feel like they are bound to a cycle that has been placed on repeat. Some days it is literally almost too much, I want to be more to them than a daycare provider, and in someways I know I am.  I hate the feeling that for some of them it is too late, but some days I feel hopeless. Some days all there is to do is pray, so thats what we did today. One of the little girls started the prayer and to my amazement, they all sat still, taking turns praying for things that were on their mind. Some days make the other days so worth it.

New Hobby :)

So since Marc is either at school, studying, or playing some sort of XBOX game 90% of the time, I have found my own hobby (which he will probably soon regret because it means me spending lots of time in places I can spend lots of money:). I have decided to start making jewelry, and it turns out its pretty fun and relaxing and it leaves me with some awesome looking things to wear! I haven't decided whether I want to try and actually sell them (like on etsy or something) or if I want to just have fun and make them at the request of friends and family. Right now, I really just like being creative... so if you see one you like or need something specific, let me know and I will see what I can do!

Here are the ones I have made this weekend... The pictures aren't wonderful so please don't judge :)

The coloring on this one is a little hard to see, the beading is light and dark purple.

Other than my new hobby life has been normal! I go to work and Marc goes to school. We don't see each other all that much during the week since I work until 8 and Marc goes to school everyday at 9, but our weekends are usually pretty fun. It is so nice to have two whole days off together. We have found a cool new church and have really enjoyed going.

Also, it is our favorite time of year because our Saturday and Sunday afternoons are filled with football! Marc loves the Cowboys and we even ate a special Sunday lunch the first week of football because our cable was not showing the Cowboys game, and we had to find a restaurant that was! I have decided to stay loyal to the Broncos even though I don't agree with the firing of Mike Shanahan. So far they have surprised me, we will see how long that lasts. Next weekend the Cowboys play the Broncos... our house will be divided. Until then, I leave you with a picture of Marc and I before our dove hunting adventure and a picture of our ridiculously lazy dog...

 Yes, that is how I found her after my shower, and yes that is my pillow.

More About Our Summer :)

We have literally been around the WORLD this summer. First in June we went with Marc's family on a Mediterranean cruise. In one word it was AMAZING... much better than the Caribbean cruise to Jamaica (where we almost died) and Cozumel (where we went deep sea fishing and I almost died from sea-sickness). Marc and I drove to Dallas (a 4 hour drive) to meet his family for our flight to New York (3.5 hour flight) and then we flew from NY to Barcelona,  Spain (8.5 hour flight). We literally  flew all night and were SO confused when we landed at 8:00 a.m. in Barcelona and had NO sleep, but it was so worth it.  From there we boarded a cruise ship and went to Naples, Italy (Pompeii); Rome, Italy; Pisa &Florence, Italy; Nice, France; and one more city of the French Riveria (I cannot at all remember the name). It was fantastic! Here are some of our favorite pictures!

On the way to DFW!

Barcelona!

On the cruise ship with our wonderful towel animals that I love!

Pompeii

 

More of Pompeii

 

Castel St. Angelo... we had just watched Angels and Demons and this is the main church in the movie!

The Coliseum

Pisa! I love this picture!!!

 

A copy of David in Florence. 

 

The Beautiful French Riviera, however don't let the water fool you it was FULL of jellyfish. 

I got really excited over our towel animals :) 

After our cruise was over, we flew back to NYC and spent the night at the Sheraton on 7th & 53rd. It was so close to Time Square, and very amazing. New York City is my absolute favorite place on earth and it was the perfect ending to our perfect vacation!!

For Marc's Birthday in July we went to Dallas to see Coldplay with Leah and Mitchell (Marc's brother and his girlfriend). It was crazy amazing, by far the best concert any of us had ever been to. Only a few pictures for this because they all kinda look the same. 

 

  

 

After that we had a few weeks of traveling back and forth to Abilene on the weekends for different reasons. Then we had our anniversary weekend! It is so crazy we have been married one whole year. We decided that since we spent our honeymoon in Boston to see our favorite baseball team, we would make a special trip for our anniversary to San Antonio to see Cowboy's Training Camp. We stayed at a very cute Sheraton right across from the riverwalk and had a wonderful time. Of course we only took a few pictures, but here are the ones we have!

Our Room

Eating lunch the first day. 

The Alamo.

 

Tony Romo at Cowboys Traning Camp!

And that is very summarized version of our very crazy summer!! We are actually enjoying being in school and work because now we have a routine! Maybe next week I will have something to talk about from the present... I'll work on it.

So Far, So Good :)

In the past year, Marc and I have gotten married, graduated from college, moved to Houston, I have started my first "real job" and Marc has started optometry school.  Our lives are changing quickly and constantly, and I really want to keep everyone updated (because everyone lives so far away now)! So I'm starting a blog... who knows if I will actually keep it updated, but I am going to try my hardest :)

So for my first blog I think I should update everyone on our summer so far, because it has been one crazy journey.

At the beginning of the summer, we were dead set on buying a house just south of Houston. However, for the loan to go through I had to have a real job... in Houston. So, I found a job (more on that later) and we lived in a hotel in Houston waiting for paperwork to go through until we realized buying a house is not exactly what we wanted. Everything was taking too long, and we realized we did not want to go through the same hassle when we are trying to move back to Abilene in a couple of years. So, we found the cutest apartment to rent and we are so glad we changed our minds about buying a house!!! We live on the southwest side of Houston and could not love our location more! Here are some pictures of our apartment (so far... still working on the decorating, etc.)

Our extremely cute new kitchen! I love it... I still have to decorate above the cabinets, but other than that its almost finished!!!

The living room/dining room area. I know its little!

But, we have an awesome bathroom to make up for it. There is a laundry room too, but that makes for boring photos. So picture a washing machine and dryer in a room and you pretty much get the idea. 

Our new bedroom furniture (minus the side tables)! I need to take more pictures in there, but it isn't quite cute enough yet. I will work on getting more up soon!

We also have a built in study area in the hallway, but its a wreck because we haven't exactly decided how to use it, so I will post more pictures later. All in all, I think we made a pretty good decision. Even though Chloe is a chocolate lab, she was made for apartment life. She HATES the Houston heat/humidity and loves staying inside with the A/C all day. I'm actually not sure if we had a yard that she would ever be in it! 

As for the rest of the changes, I really like my new job. I am the Activities Coordinator for the 6-8 year old children at Star of Hope Mission. Sometimes it is ALOT of work, espeically during the summer, but I really love the kids. There are days I wish there was more social work involved, but now that school has started I can definitely see why they wanted someone with a social work degree. There is more time to do the real "social work" stuff (meaning lots more paper work too) when I'm not trying to entertain the kids for my whole 8 hours straight. Now I have time to meet with the kids and parents one on one, and try and figure out options for their different problems. It has been a real blessing so far, and I can't wait to see what the whole year brings. 

Marc just started Optometry School at the University of Houston and I think he really enjoys it. He has been studying alot, and is at school ALL the time. I am really proud of how well he has done so far, he is such a smart person! Maybe one of these days I will convince him to write something about it on here, but until then I will try and summarize as best I can. 

The rest of our summer has been jam packed with trips and vacations... but I will save that for the next blog. We have done too much to fit in just one, and I know I will need a topic to get me through until something interesting happens!!!