16 months later...

Well, 16 months later...here we go. Apparently I got more than a little distracted with life and forgot to write!

It has been a busy last several months since we last spoke (or blogged...). I am working at my church (Hope Community Church) and loving it! I am staying really busy...no real surprise there. Okay, quick run-down of the last 16 months:

-February 08: just started working at AG Headquarters
-March-May 08: kind of a blur...not sure if anything spectacular happened
-June 08: went to Michigan for a family wedding
-July 08: went to Texas and Washington to be a bridesmaid in two weddings
-August 08: I'm sure this was a good month...I just don't remember it!
-September 08: started playing piano...again
-October 08: went to Michigan for my cousin Mark's wedding
-November 08: began the Guitar Hero showdown with my bro-in-law Adam which stil
-December 08: got a new niece, Anna Marie (Alaina's new little girl)
-January 09: turned 24
-February 09: quit Headquarters through a series of God-orchestrated events (although, isn't everything orchestrated by Him?)
-March 09: started working at Hope
-April 09: got into a car accident and totaled my Neon :(
-May 09: went to Michigan for the first time since Christmas to buy a car

Well, here it is. My life in a few short paragraphs!!

Vacation Is Over...

My unintentional vacation from the land of the blog is officially over. I would like to say that not much has happened since I last blogged, but I would be mistaken. Somedays, though, it felt like nothing was going on!

I have finished my student teaching...YEA! I have received my diploma from Evangel...YEA! I am not teaching...YEA-wait, what??? Yes, it is true. 4 and a half years later, armed with a college degree and a teaching certificate...I am not doing any related to my degree! It is okay, though. I feel like God is leading me down a different path right now and I am excited to see where it leads, first of all, because if He is dealing with it, I don't have to, and secondly, His plan is better than mine (shocking, I know!). After several weeks of worrying and panicking, I finally really listened to what God was trying to tell me and decided to stop pursuing teaching (I kept hitting a brick wall with the local districts...gee...I wonder why?). As soon as I started looking at other options, doors started flinging wide open. Well, maybe not wide open, but at least cracked! In what was supposed to take about 2 months but was really 2 weeks to the day, I applied, tested, interviewed, and accepted a position at the Assemblies of God Headquarters in Springfield, MO. I am working there full time as a Contribution Control Clerk/Administrative Assistant in Contributor Services. So next time you are in Springfield and decide to visit HQ, stop by the 2nd floor!

Ernie Frances

In case you haven't noticed, student teaching has kept me so busy and distracted that I haven't had time to blog! I realized yesterday that I have been remiss in sharing the newest addition to the family with all of you. His name is Ernie Frances. He has quite a story!

It all began the night my roommate Dana moved in! It was late at night and I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed. Dana and her mom were already in bed and asleep. I noticed something move on the rug out of the corner of my eye. Curious, I looked closer. It was the tiniest lizard I have ever seen in my entire life!! What was it doing in my bathroom?!?! I had lived in the apartment 3 months with no pest problems and had lived in Missouri for 4 year and never saw a lizard in a house unless it was a pet. I panicked! I tried to wake up Dana (who is from Austin, TX) to find out what to do. How was I supposed to know?? I am from MICHIGAN!! We don't have wild lizards in our houses! She, not even waking up, told me to catch it. So I did. I caught him in a cup and kept him to show the others in the morning.

The next day, I was still worked up about it. Dana and her mom, on the other hand, thought it was no big deal! They have them all over in Austin! Even in their house! I decided to keep him as a pet because he was so little (maybe an inch and a half at the time, tail included) and I couldn't see letting him go in the wilds of Springfield where he would surely die before the day was out. They thought I was crazy! I couldn't keep him in the cup forever so after going to several pet supply stores, I finally found someone to tell me what kind of lizard he might be and how to take care of him. We discovered through the wonders of the internet that Ernie is a Mediterranean Gecko. Those types of geckos hide and stowaway which is why they are quickly spreading out all over the world! We discovered he probably hitched a ride in Dana's boxes when she moved back to Springfield and wandered into the bathroom!

We still have him and he is growing a lot! He is over 2 inches long! I always thought if I had a pet I would get a puppy or a kitten but instead I have a beta fish (Joaquin) and now a lizard (Ernie). But don't worry, you will get to meet him. He is coming for Thanksgiving!

I took this about 2 or 3 weeks after I found him. He was so scrawny and little! He was so small the camera couldn't find him to focus!

Dana's friend Steve made Ernie this HUGE maze to play in!

Okay, so I realize this post definitely makes me seem a little weird...or maybe very weird!

I took him to school when I was teaching the class about reptiles and they loved it! Yesterday he started shedding his scales so I took a lot of pictures so I could take them into class and show the kids.

One of My Favorites!

The kids of my class are crazy. First graders are crazy. They don't sit still. When they get excited, they can't stop talking to each other. Yet I love every (well, almost every) minute of it.

This week has been a blast from the past for me at Jeffries. We read the book "The Principal's New Clothes". Sound familiar?? Maybe you would recognize it as "The Emperor's New Clothes". Family members (especially Grandma) will know this, for the rest of you, here is a little insight to the childhood of Mark and myself. We made Grandma read this book to us over and over every time we went to her house!! Mark actually got the book when Grandma moved and I tried really hard to find a picture of the cover but I couldn't find it! The copy she had was the best one. Because this was my favorite book, I was really excited to see a similar story in the curriculum. I told my teacher about it so we made a comparison lesson between the two stories (which are almost identical except for the setting).

I will tell more stories of my kids and try to post pictures of them later...for now, you can enjoy Mark and I!

Thank You, Mom, Grandma, and Alaina!

Living on my own has opened the door to cooking for me. Thanks to all the help, last minute calls, recipes, and endless teaching from my mom, my grandma burkhart, and my sister Alaina, my roommate and I are no longer starving. I used to watch them cook and wonder how they possibly timed everything to hit the table at the exact same time when nothing had the same cooking times or temperatures!!! Now, I can proudly say that I can do it too (and it even tastes good!)! Friends that I have over for dinner are always surprised and I have to admit the everything I know, I learned from my family! I have even been slowly teaching my friends how to cook. Whenever they say they can't cook, I always use a trademark Grandma Burkhart phrase "Can you read? (yes) Then you can cook!" The picture is a magazine picture of one of the desserts I made when my roommate and I had company over. It is a molten chocolate cake and tastes awesome! When I made it, it even looked like this!! Most of you may know, I come from a family of notable cooks. I even remember having people tell me at my high school open house that they made sure they came to mine because they knew the food would be awesome!! This is just one of the legacies passed on through my family that I am thankful for.

There are many things about my family that I am thankful for, mainly the Christian heritage that I have. Yesterday was my Poppy's five year anniversary in Heaven. I miss him and I know the rest of the family does, too. He and Grandma have given so much and invested so much in their children, their grandchildren, and now their great grandchildren (as well as countless others from the church family and beyond). I am so thankful that when Poppy's sister came to visit from Cando, they all went to the local Assemblies of God church and met Jesus Christ. How different our lives might have been! I can only hope that I can be the same example to my children and my children's children that my parents and grandparents have been for me.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for Evangel. I love the beginning of the school year. I love fall(although it doesn't feel like fall right now!) . There is something about this time of year that I just love. Maybe it is the teacher in me, but like Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail, I would send all of you a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils to celebrate! To me, even though spring brings new life, spring also brings a little sadness. A school year has come and gone. Everyone goes their separate ways for summer vacations. People graduate and move on. But in the fall, everything and everyone comes together again. School starts up again, you meet new people and challenges, and greet old friends back from where ever they ended up for the summer.

My first day was a long one. I started my student teaching seminar with all the others who are doing their student teaching this semester. We got all of the paperwork and information that we will need to complete our final semester. The only thing that really sunk in is that I need to bring a pillow, cushion, or a whole new chair because the ones in our meeting room are awful!!! We stay in the same room from 9am to 4pm with little breaks throughout the day. It really isn't so bad but it is overwhelming, I am tired, and my body aches from trying to get comfortable all day!! Tomorrow is my first full day at Jeffries Elementary School. I think I may need to go take a nap now! More to come...

Jillian Grace Has Arrived!

Yesterday, July 11, at 11:48am, Jillian Grace Smith finally arrived after weeks of false alarms and contractions! Shaunna and Adam went to the doctor on Monday for their weekly check-up and the non-stress test showed that Jilly's heart rate had dropped slightly. They decided to induce labor on Wednesday morning around 6am. When Shaunna's water broke around 9:15am, they discovered meconium (the baby's bowl movement) in the water. Not the best sign, so they started monitoring the baby even more closely. Around 11am, the doctor didn't like Jilly's vitals so they decided to get the baby out by C-section. She was 7 lbs 3 oz and 18 1/2 in long. She has dark hair and Shaunna's nose! Very cute! Here are some pics:

Our first peek through the window!

I hope these are enough to satisfy your curiosity for now. Alaina and Mom are in Peoria until Monday to help Shaunna settle. I will be in Ohio for a wedding this weekend and then home for a couple days before coming back next week to stay with Shaunna and Adam for about a week! Right now, it looks like Shaunna and Jillian will be home sometime on Saturday!