It all starts tomorrow

2 students should be in Clarksville as I type this, and our last one arrives tomorrow morning.  1:30 tomorrow afternoon officially kicks off the 0809 year of Master's Commission Clarksville.  I am super excited about it, but I'm sweating my pants off as well.  This is technically my first year with Master's as I worked a full-time job last year.  I know and love two of our 2nd years, but I'm starting fresh and new with our 2 first years and 1 new to the program 2nd year.  I'm going to be learning our program and how my husband ticks in the Master's environment.  Lord help me learn what I need from you and from the students.  Let my pride fall in the face of humility, and help ME to BE what YOU want ME to BE!!!

I Need a Nap

My mind is whirl right now. For whatever reason, my girl Camille was up late and decided to throw something at me on Facebook. I got the text at 2:51 am! Now, I've got my mobile updates set to run from 10 am to 10 pm. What happened?? I've decided to start working out with my husband in the mornings, so being woken up at 2:51 and then again at 6 was not cool.

We're moving fast and furiously towards Zero Day for Master's Commission Clarksville. We've still got some of the small details to work out for our Orientation Week, but I'm realizing that time is running down, and we've got to "get 'er done!" With students straggling in over the next 8 days with Aaron arriving Thursday right before we kick off, I'll be focused on getting everything finished and prepared before we get started. Lord help me stay focused on what needs to be done and trust you for all the small things.

A Day Off

For the first time in a LONG time Carlo and I are off on a Friday. His day off is always Friday, but when I was teaching, I was at work and he was home, or during the summer we had the boys. Well, today we are both off, and the boys are at school. So what did my husband decide to do? He decided to take me on a date! Isn't that great? It's been a long time since we've been able to just go me and him. I think the last time we picked up and went without any thoughts to kids was the summer of 2004. Tony spent the summer with my folks in South Carolina and I was pregnant with David. No responsibilities as far as kids go and the ability to just go grab a meal or catch a movie or whatever. I have no idea what Carlo has planned for today, but I'm excited about it. Maybe I can get some awesome pictures of us today, we have so few of those.

Life

My sister, Danielle, just welcomed a baby girl into the world. I'm stoked, for one reason, this is a miracle child. My sister had cancer back in 2002. She lost a baby right before she was diagnosed, and the possibility of having kids was very slim. Every week of this pregnancy has been a blessing and the culmination has arrived. My niece, Aubree Alaina, is here and is welcomed by parents who love her greatly, grandparents on both sides who are going to spoil her rotten, 2 aunts who probably will as well, uncles who won't know what to do with her, and 7 cousins who will be fascinated by another little one when they get to see her. It has occurred to me that my mom is OLD!! Not really, she's just over the half-century mark, but she does have 8 grand-kids & there's only 5 of us kids. You do the math. We'll have to get everybody home from their parts of the world to have a reunion, not everybody's met everyone else's significant other and their kids. Isn't that something??

Wow!!

That's pretty much all I can say right now. Things are moving at a pretty good pace right now. The boys are in school, I'm working alongside Carlo daily, my sister is having her baby sometime today (get er done Dani!!), and I won a $500 scholarship that is going to pay off my first level of classes with Berean!!

Life has been great and God has been greater. One of the highlights of this week for me has been that I killed a spider on Sunday morning. For those of you who don't know me, I am terrified of spiders. If I see one, my world stops. I'm like the mouse who is mesmerized by the snake that's about to eat it. Carlo knows my "there's a spider voice," and usually comes running when he hears it. My problem Sunday? Carlo was in the shower, the spider was chillin' on the kitchen curtain, and Carlo had just preached a sermon on Wed. about being "faithfully fearless." What kind of wife or Christian for that matter would I be if I completely ignored the Word of God and let my fears rule me. It doesn't help that I've been reading Mark Batterson's In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day, and am challenged repeatedly to unlearn fears and fight that lion.

Well, I fought and won on Sunday. What's awesome is that I wasn't afraid to kill the spider. You see, that's my problem. It's not the spider itself I'm afraid of, it's the spider getting on me when I try to kill it, that's my problem. On this particular occasion I was more afraid of breaking the stained glass leaf Tony made for me that was sitting perfectly aligned behind the spider in the window sill. Well, spider dead, leaf okay...Rock on Jaemi!! I did it!

Take me out to the ballgame

Last night we took a group of our young adults to see the local AAA ball club play. Our couple's fellowship at church goes every year and makes it kind of a family outing. We always pick a time when they have a Christian artist playing, and for $10 you get the concert, the game, a hot dog, and a soda. Last night Jars of Clay played. It was pretty cool having them there. Their set wasn't like the best, but when are you going to hear Jars of Clay for ten bucks??

One of the best things was being able to take Tony with us. He's been going to ball games since he was 3, and he always looks forward to them. One of Tony's favorite things to do with my dad is go to Columbia Blowfish games whenever we're in Columbia during the summer. Tony spent the night hanging with some friends who were there, watching the game, and doing what everybody loves to do at games: eat. Mimi Cathy got her spoil on with Tony treating him to bag a peanuts so it was an overall great experience for him. I think for Tony is was a great cap to a great summer.

I've been working

This past week I've been working at MCA helping out. It hasn't been too bad. I've been administering Diagnostic Tests and getting my old classroom set up. The teacher that will be taking the class is in training this week, so in order to make sure things are ready to go on Monday morning, I'm setting the room up. For me this is cool, because everything I wanted to change last year I was able to change during summer school, so now I'm prepping the way I wish I could have before school started last year.

I'll work Monday to help the teacher out, let her know where things are at and how they are set up so she can decide to make any changes if she'd like. Starting Tuesday, it's the MCC office for me. I'm really excited about this change. Setting up in the office and working and planning with Carlo to get our year off the ground. It's going to be the best!

Get Yo Preach On

Tonight my wonderful hubby preached the message in service. The message should be up in a couple of days on the church's website (www.clarksville1ag.net). The message was about fears and facing those fears to become fearless. Carlo used great pictures to illustrate his points and referenced Mark Batterson's In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day. The main text was found in 2 Samuel 23:20. The story of Beniah and his fight with a lion is incredible. When you think of it, Beniah was crazy, but his actions showed a guy who looked at an opportunity and was FEARLESS!! He got down and dirty and because of it, he became the commander in chief of Israel's army!! What an opportunity God gave Beniah!! If only we took the opportunities God place in front of us and used them to become fearless and move where God wants us to go. What is waiting around the corner for us when we get down and dirty in the pit with the lion?

Whew

I finished my Evangelism class today with a 90%. This is a marked improvement on my Hermeneutics final. I'm just happy to be done. Next up...Pentecostal History (I think that's what Carlo said is next).

WAR Week (our first week of MCC) is kicking off in 2 1/2 weeks! I'm so excited. Carlo and I have just about everything roughed out, now it's just details. If you don't know me, I live my life in the details. It's those little things that I love to see to and take care of, unfortunately, it's those little things that kill me too. I see them so perfectly in my head, I plan for them so pain-stakingly and then something goes wrong and I feel a failure or like I screwed up somewhere. It's gotten to the point that I try not to think about things that can occur in the future because I don't want to ruin "what might be." Lord help me not sweat the small stuff when it doesn't go the way I think it should, but to always remember that you are in control and things are going the way You want them to.

Lions

So I've been reading In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day, by Mark Batterson (www.evotional.com). My husband has blogged with about this book a couple of different times and how his life has been impacted by it. Well, my life and my outlook on life is changing because of this book. In a very general nutshell, Batterson equates lions with opportunities presented to us by God, and we can do 1 of two things. We can 1) be like Beniah and jump in the pit and face the lion, or 2) be a punk and run away and lose the opportunity that God has given you.

I personally believe God put a lion in my path today, and I think I got in the pit with that sucker. It's nothing big like a drastic career change or a divine call to something new. It was just sharing my testimony with someone who probably needed to hear it. I know sharing my testimony doesn't seem big, for me it was. It was a one on one sharing of major events in my life to one of the most unreceptive audiences in the world, (in my opinion), an American teenager. I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit uses something I said to impact this person's life and hopefully they will be able to change and allow God to work in his life.

I challenge you to look read the book if you haven't read it and to be on the look out for the lions God puts in your path and get in that pit and win. You never know when your lion will become an elephant.

It's time dangit!!

I am so ready for Tony to come home. He's been camping out since Thursday afternoon for his Royal Rangers Pow-Wow. I know he's had a good time, but I'm ready to see his sweet face bopping around the house. Poor David has missed his "bubby" very much. He's slept in his bed, and asked when he's coming home since he left. This morning when he woke up the first words out of his mouth after asking for "cheese biscuits and eggs," he wanted to know if it was time for me to pick Tony up.

My poor honey has been asked to drive the van and trailer to get the boys and their gear and bring them back. This is his first experience in a long time driving a van with a trailer, so I'm riding shot-gun. This oughta be a fun experience for the two of us. So with that said...bring on the adventure!!

It is finished

So, I just finished my Heremeneutics final. I passed!! Yay me, right? Well, I'm not happy...I didn't get the grade I wanted. I'm mad at myself because I've been done with the class since the end of April and I'm just now taking the final. I'm mad because I know that I could have studied a little bit longer and probably done better. Well, what's done is done, it's just that my goal of straight A's is down the drain. I'm determined to do much better on my Evangelism final.