A Man's best friends....Dogs and Cars

The summer is flying by and before long I will be getting up early and heading to work everyday. Since I started teaching I have been ready for school to start back by the time the middle of July rolled around. This summer is different! This summer has went by way too fast and I am no where near ready to go back.

I think I am apprehensive about this new year because I am having to move classrooms, as well as teach a different grade level. With a new grade comes new and unfamiliar standards, as well as new requirements from the state and a different set of teachers. I am teaching 5th grade next year instead of 4th grade and the good news is that I am only teaching Math and Science. It seems like there would be less pressure since I will only be teaching two subjects instead of 5, but 5th grade is a critical year where students are required to pass both the Reading and Math portions of the CRCT to be promoted to 6th grade. Too add more pressure, I will be co-teaching and team teaching which will bring the total number of teachers I am directly working with to 4 (possibly 6, depending on how many co-teachers we have) and means that I will be teaching some of the special education population. Just a lot of changes, as well as added pressure has me nervous about starting the new school year.

There is another reason that I am dreading school starting back! I have gotten some fun new things to play with this summer. One of those things was free and the other was NOT!

First off, there is Daisy! I got a new puppy as soon as the school year ended from a fellow teacher. Daisy is a bullador. At least that is what they are called when they are sold on the open market, but this litter was a complete accident. Daisy is 1/2 registered labrador retriever and 1/2 registered English Bulldog. She looks like a lab but has eyes like a bulldog. She looks at you like she is about to cry, even when her tail is wagging like the propellor on a helicopter. She also sits like a bulldog. She doesn't squat but sits squarely on her rump! She is funny and everyone who has seen her loves her! I just wish she would stop teething and biting on everything that comes near her face!

This is Daisy at about 6 weeks old:


Here she is again at almost 11 weeks...she is growing so fast and is going to be a HUGE dog!


Ahhh...and my newest toy! I finally got my dream car! On July 3rd, I went to Alpharetta and bought a 1967 Camaro RS Convertible. It is SHAAAWWWWEEEETTT! It is basically how I wanted a car. I wanted it to look nice enough for me to drive, but not so nice that I couldn't do a little work on it myself. It is a fun car to drive through the mountains.

I haven't looked at them in a long time because I knew that if I looked it wouldn't be long before I bought one. I was sitting at the 'rents house one day and decided that I would just check on Craigslist and see what the prices of them were running in a poor economy and at the top of the list was a 1967 Camaro RS Convertible. I called Dad and Mom over expecting them to tell me what any reasonable parent would tell their child. I expected to hear that I didn't need to spend the money and that I could wait to get it. NOPE, not in a family who LOVES muscle cars!! Dad said, "That's a good deal! Nancy, call the bank and see if he can get the money." Mom agreed and the next day the deal was done! Not how I expected it to go down, but I am happy with my purchase.

My dad has a 1966 Chevelle that is fully restored. My brother has a 1932 Ford Sedan that he is working on, as well as another 1966 Chevelle. So I figured that it was time that I joined the crowd!

Here she is!

Side View:


Front view......that's mean!



I am also still playing the guitar and I feel like I am getting better at it all the time. I love playing and am keeping myself occupied with one of these three things virtually every second of my day. I am considering and debating about whether I should post some videos of me playing guitar on here to get some feedback from the people who read the blog. I am nervous about that though because I am not sure how I will take the negative feedback. Maybe one day I will get up the nerve...maybe one day soon!

So that is why I am not ready to go back to school this year. I am not ready for the summer to end. I am enjoying this summer like no summer I have had since graduating college! I am content with where God has me right now and there is a peace that is indescribable being in this position. I am trying to stay in THE WORD and to stay humble so that God can use me to help others while I am trying to help myself. I am finding that more and more opportunities are presenting themselves for me to witness to people who do not know the love and forgiveness of living a life with Christ and to Christians who need some help along the way.

I thank God for his blessings and the toys that He allows me to play with in my free time. They are not mine but His and I know that He can take them away just as fast as he has given them to me. My prayer is that I will never let the possessions that God has blessed me with take precedent over the Creator who let me have them in the first place.

Crosses

Every person on this planet has baggage. Every person has things that they deal with on a daily basis that no one in the world knows about. These are things that I call "crosses". Worldly worries, such as mortgage payments, insurance, relationships, health issues, etc., make up these crosses. These worldly crosses are different from the Cross of Christ. Jesus said to lay our cares (little C crosses) on him because his yoke is easy and his burden is light. We are called to carry the Cross and give Christ our crosses. So many times though we lay down the Cross of Christ and lug our crosses around instead.

All of this talk about crosses comes from a late night conversation that I had with a friend the other night over Facebook chat during a bout of insomnia. (That is a crazy long sentence but I can't figure out how to break it up!) We were talking about life and the circumstances that we face and how through it all we are constantly looking for someone who is willing to share this crazy, beautiful life with us. From that we started talking about relationships and things that hold us back. We talked about how we constantly tell other people that they shouldn't let their baggage or "crosses" get in the way of a relationship, when we are constantly doing exactly that with our own relationships.

I know exactly what it is that holds me back in every relationship! There are a number of things but two things hold me back in particular. The first and largest thing is my health. My life and my future are a whole bunch of unknowns! I could have to have another transplant in the future, I have no immune system and am at a higher risk for cancer than the normal population, having children then something happening and leaving a single mother and a child to continue living. Then there is my past! Yes we all have one and mine is fairly tame, but there was a point in my life where I did some things that I am not proud of today. It is easy to be open about my health because there is no way to hide it, but my past is a different story. I can keep it under lock and key for the most part!

I say all of this to say that I am a hypocrite! I can give some killer advice and never take it for myself! The good thing about having a loving Savior and a merciful God is that through that hypocrisy, I can grow in Him.

In this conversation, it was brought up about how it was hard for this person to get over some things that have happened to them in their life. In trying to help them and consel them in the best way that I could, I gave the following advice:

In my life, God has told me that I can choose to either carry His cross or carry my own. Because we have free will, it is our choice as to which one we take. The catch is that we must take one! I can carry all of my crosses around and let them drag me down. Because they are all small crosses they can only be used as an anchor though.

My second option is to take up His cross. His cross is huge and it is going to stand out. People are going to notice it when you are walking around with His Cross. Even if I choose to take up The Cross of Christ, it can be used in two ways. It is big enough though that I can use it as a staff to help me up and over the mountain which is how Christ intends for it to be used. The second option is for me to use it as an anchor to drag me back down. It is up to me how I use His Cross but either way He and the Cross are with me until the end. If I want to sit down on him, His Cross can be a ball and chain. If I want to work for him, I can use it to help me. In the end though it is my decision.

My hope and my goal is to lay down all of my crosses at the feet of Jesus and take up His Cross. When I take up His Cross, I am promised help, safe keeping, and comfort in time of need. If I carry around my crosses, I am almost guaranteed worry, troubles, and hard times. Seems like an easy decision to make, but it becomes a hard one to follow through on.