It feels like it has been ages since my last post; even though it has only been about a month, so much has happened since then! My life, seemingly on course, just got flip
ped upside down, again. I think its a good thing...I think, but I guess when we make decisions, we have to take that leap and trust that it will all work out in the end. And that's precisely what I've done. I've taken a leap.Let's backtrack a bit. My last post was Thanksgiving. Well, just before my family arrived for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time. We stuck with all of our usual Thanksgiving traditions, from watching the parade together, to having all of our usual dinner favorites, to watching football, to getting up before the crack of dawn to shop. We were in pretty tight quarters in my little apartment, so sleeping arrangements were interesting, not to mention cooking such a meal in an apartment kitchen, but it all worked out! We got up and watched the parade together; MG put in a turkey early so it was ready before I had to run off to work. The dinner was amazing, as usual (have any of you ever had a bad meal from MG?). I had to run off to work, but I got home fairly early. We decided to go to bed early to get some rest before shopping, and that didn't happen. We were back up before an hour, watching a movie and snacking on pie (no worries, it was sugar free and light, however delicious!). We left for Little Rock for some Black Friday shopping for Christmas gifts around 130 am, and we were home before 9am. Allison and Emily were assigned to Target, because Em had to buy MG's gift from all of us (we got a really good deal), and Allison had to buy Em's from me and her. It was all very complicated and fun. I was at Walmart (the lucky one of the group who got to hang out inside to wait in line instead of in the 25 degree weather outside Target) to get Allison's gift from MG and DR (who were snoring away in my snug apartment) and Allison's gift from Em and me. So we got what we needed and headed home before too much damage was done, other than the back hatch of my car falling on my head. That was pretty painful. We went to bed and slept a few hours before I had to go to work Friday and the rest of the family went shopping. By th
e time I got home from work, my wonderful family had set up my Christmas tree and pulled out my decorations for me to decorate my tree, and had my birthday gifts ready for me to open. So Friday night was just some good ole' family time, hanging out and laughing and decorating my Christmas tree, reminiscing, remembering stories from the Christmases when we got those ornaments and that stocking, it was fantastic. MG and DR left Saturday morning, and we went to see GG and the T kids who came down for the game and a visit for the weekend. GG and Collin went to the game and Allie, Em and I watched the boys. We went to the park and played and at lunch time, we got a pizza and went back to the hotel for nap time. Em and I went to visit our friend in Newport and the boys and Allie spent a few hours in the hotel. When we got back, we went swimming, as promised, since the boys napped so well. When GG and Collin got back from LR, we all went to Colton's for a little mini-birthday celebration. I had to work third that night and ended up sick (great timing). So I worked and went straight to bed when I got home. Allison and Em left sometime while I was in bed sick, and I spent the next night and day recuperating. Tuesday of that week was my birthday, and I played hookie to go to the Sarah Palin book signing in LR. I spent most of the day at Sam's Club in LR and then went to Allie's for my birthday celebration with her. It was an awesome holiday and birthday weekend!The couple of weeks to follow are a bit of a blur, between final projects and final exams and the MAT exam and my Praxis results and well, just a lot going on. I did a painting for my color class that I was actually fairly pleased with. I had exams in both of my undergrad courses, as well as an exam for one master's course and two final papers and a book repor
t for the other grad course. I also had to go take the MAT during finals week. For some reason, I seem to put off things like that until the worst possible time. At any rate, I passed the MAT (for anyone who's wondering, that is the Miller's Analogies Test, which I took instead of the GRE, the Graduate Record Examination, mainly because it didn't cost as much) and I did fine on my Praxis II exams, which I had taken earlier in November. I went to speak with my adviser about my plan of action, since I would actually be 'accepted' into the program now that I had fulfilled all of the requirements, which included the remainder of my undergraduate art leveling courses and those exams, and that's when things went a bit wonky.I found out that day, before my history final, that my courses weren't all offered in Searcy any longer, which was quite shocking since I moved to Searcy for this program. The program has so many more students in Bentonville than in Little Rock or Searcy that they could no longer justify having full courses on all three campuses. They had decided to cut the courses from LR and Searcy and share them. The students in LR and Searcy would have to drive for half of their courses to one campus or the other, for the remainder of the program. This blew my mind a bit, because the program wasn't offered at all in Bentonville just a year ago when I first inquired about the program. Whatever the case, I had a decision to make. Here was my dilemma: I love NWA and I want to m
ove back, but this was finals week, and if I moved out, I had to move out now with no notice, and I was leaving for Branson the next day for our Family Christmas. Another issue, I have a job. I can't just pick up and leave. Also, moving is a huge expense, believe me, if anyone knows the costs of moving, its me. I had all of this planned out just a week ago: I was going to stay in Searcy until July, then move up to NWA for my student teaching, which was going to be assigned to the Bentonville Harding campus. Well, you know what happens when we make plans. So, now the question was whether I was going to stay in Searcy and drive to LR for half of my classes for a semester, or bite the bullet and move in a matter of days and just deal with it. It seems like I am left with decisions like this a lot. I made a post on my Facebook status: "Just when you start to think you've got things all figured out, God laughs at you a little, then reminds you who is in charge." And that really is how I felt. I really had things all lined up and then a decision like this. I decided to put it to a family discussion, as things normally go, and after we opened our gifts in Branson, we discussed it. We weighed out the pros and cons (yes, I'm one of those-Allison and I made many Gilmore Girl references about the situation). Allison obviously was upset at the thought of me leaving, as were my friends in Searcy, coworkers, church family, and Anna, of course. But I also had this heavy pull from my family and friends in NWA. And this tug of war game was just the people in my life, not the work, live, scho
ol aspects of my life. It was really just a weight to even be considering such a decision. Anywho, by the end of the night, we had all agreed that it was most logical to go ahead and move now. For those of you thinking 'wow, why is she still going on about this?!' this was a huge decision, as trivial as it may seem.Aside from the craziness of decisions and moving, a lot of fun stuff has happened this month. I didn't really get the chance to get into the Christmas spirit, despite my efforts with the Christmas decorations and constant Christmas movies and music, because of school and exams. Once the exams were over and we headed north, that's when the spirit kicked in. Allison and I stopped in Fayetteville on the way through to pick up Emily. We hung out with Mya and Felisha a good part of the day, then went to Emily's Christmas program at her day care. Her class was adorable. Then we headed to Branson. As far as I can tell, there are few better places around to get into the Christmas spirit than Branson. After our gift exchanges on Thursday night (a week before Christmas Eve) we relaxed and had our annual Christmas gift fashion show. We got up the next day and went to Silver Dollar City, which was all decked out in Christmas style. If you have never been to SDC at Christmas, wait no longer. It's amazing. The tree lighting and parade are so beautiful, and the festive decorations and food are just fun, not to mention the Christmas Carol play they put on and the themed song and dance shows. We bought new ornaments, took lots and lots of photos (thanks to my wonderful sisters for my new toy, a fabulous new camera! They may regret that gift before
too long...when they can't see from the flash ;)) We had a great time there, then we met our extended family, the Parkers, for our Christmas celebration together. Family time with the Parkers is never dull; we had a fantastic time. We left Saturday; MG, DR and Allie went back to VB, and Em and I made a few stops in NWA to deliver some Christmas gifts to more extended family. We went back to VB for church Sunday; Allison and I went back to Conway Sunday night, then I went back to Searcy Monday to start taking care of the moving arrangements.I had to inform Harding Housing that I was leaving; they extended the move out date a few days so that I would have a little more time. I had to be out before Christmas, or I would have to pay rent on my apartment for the Spring semester. I also had to disconnect all of my utilities, find a storage unit, arrange for a truck to help me move out, and find some extra hands and a strong back to help me. I got back to my apartment Monday night and started packing away. Most of Monday night was dedicated to my books; I get that trait from DR. I basically have a library in my tiny apartment, three bookshelves plus some, so the books are sometimes the most to move. I packed them up and got them to the storage unit. On Tuesday, my wonderful friend and sister Christena came to help me. Mr Bill came to the rescue on his whit
e stallion...er, white truck, and we moved a good majority of the furniture and big pieces Tuesday. C and I virtually crashed Tuesday night...very little packing was done. Wednesday, I had to work first shift, then we finished moving most of the smaller stuff before church. We actually went back to the apartment and packed and moved more after church. Thursday was my check-out day, so we had to get up early, finish moving and clean the place before noon. Somehow, we got it done, with very little drama, might I add-omitting a few scenes of lock and key knock-down-drag-outs, which I won't go into.So, for the third time this year, I am once again homeless. It really is a good thing I am so blessed with wonderful friends and family, and a good job. I am staying with Allison, on a twin mattress in her floor with my things all in a neat pile (if you know me, you know this is driving me crazy!) and I'm driving to Searcy to work, mostly on the weekends, but because of the holidays, more than usual right
now. Thankfully, I can stay at the hospital when I'm working, so I don't have to drive back and forth every day.Right now, I'm in a bit of an in between world, in between my two lives. I am still working in Searcy, but I am enrolled in classes in Bentonville, which are scheduled to begin in the middle of January. Once I find an apartment and a job, I will move to Bentonville permanently, or as permanent as my life gets. For now, I'm staying at Allison's, MG and DR's place in VB, or the hospital. Once school starts, I'll stay with wonderful extended family in NWA during classes and back to Allison's for work on the weekends. If it sounds pretty chaotic, that's because it is!
As much craziness as my life entails, I love it! I love the chance to move back up to NWA. I love the time that I spent in Searcy and the life experiences and friends I have gained from that time. I love that I have the options and the choices to make and I'm
not forced in one way or another. I love that I get to change pace and scenery when I need or want. I just love it. It's pretty crazy that I thrive off of this sort of chaos, right? Oh well, that's me. Take me, or leave me. :)So, right now, I'm sitting in Conway at Allison's. Emily and Allison left earlier today to go do some New Year's celebrating with our PV family. I am preparing for a weekend of third shift work followed by a few days in VB next week then about 6 days straight in Searcy next week/weekend at work. The next few weeks will probably be just about as complicated as the last, but I probably wouldn't change it if I could. Complicated is so much less boring than simple.
I don't commit to New Year's Resolutions. I feel like a resolution at the beginning of the year is just a set-up for failure. I try every day to be a better person than I was the day before. Some days I succeed. Some days I fail. But I try every day. And I feel like that's all I can expect of myself. So, in 2011, I am going to be a better person with each passing day. And if I only succeed one day in 2011, at least I'll be a better person in 2011 than I was in 2010.
So, my verse to end this year and begin the next is this:
Isaiah 43:18-19
18 “But forget all that—
it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
19 For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.
(New Living Translation)
Love Always.
