You're the God of this City...

GO and be ye DOERS of the word and NOT hearers only....

You're the God of this City...

2 hours
4 girls, 2 guys
11 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Pretzels
Bananas
Water
Cookies
God's Word

This is all it took for Wendy, Erin, Jessie, Kenton, Eric, and I to make a difference. We put feet to the Gospel. We put God's word into action. We showed love. We put our Bible study of the book of James into practice.

Tonight we traveled into DC to impact the homeless. It was Jessie's desire to see us do this. It was her listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to get us off our duffs and doing something. My love language is serving. I have been hungry for serving for a VERY LONG TIME. I was so excited for this. We didn't want to take over the city. We weren't going to feed the whole capital. We weren't trying to break a record. We were just FINALLY doing something for God. We were finally allowing us to be used by Him in ways that aren't comfortable or natural or effortless.

We were all scared. But we bathed the outing in prayer by holding hands and calling out to Him for strength, words and courage. We asked God to bring people out who needed food and who needed us. We asked Him to use us.

We found people right away in McPhearson Square, a safe park with a lot of benches. We turned a corner, looking for others. It's such a different thing--LOOKING for the homeless. So many times we find them on accident, creating panic and awkwardness, or they find us. I saw one across the way, and thought....well, we'll get him next time, we are already going this way, I won't say anything. God made me speak up and we turned around and stumbled upon at least 6 other people who needed food in that little triangle of benches. Eric and I approached a man who was sleeping. I told him---You give it to him. I'm scared. He looks at me and says, I'm scared. It was good to know he was scared too. Not scared for my life or worried, but just afraid of the unknown. As we were approaching him, this guy from across the way yelled to me, telling me that he'd take some food.

That is when we met Bob Hope and Rick James. They were pretty cool, chatting it up with us, playing along with their stories. Wendy claimed to be Brittany Spears and Kenton was thought to be named Ken, which then prompted the question..."Which one's Barbie?" Jessie waved her hand and then we laughed about Kenton and Wendy's wedding being off, etc. We talked to them for about 7 minutes. Amazing.

We walked past the sleeping guy Eric approached, and he was now up...eating the sack lunch. We actually got to see our food being a blessing to someone else. We planted a seed and it was growing. Immediately. Not the seed of salvation, but the seed of love.

Another guy asked Kenton to pray for him. That was so cool. Wendy was talking to a guy and asked him how she could pray for him. He said...pray for the weather.

The weather.

How many times do I worry about the weather because of what I'm going to WEAR or how my hair is going to react and how many times do I EVER worry about it affecting my way of life? Of it soaking all of my personal belongings? Or ruining the only picture I have of my loved one? Or causing it to be a night of no sleep?

I have a bed. I have clean sheets. I have the safety of 4 walls around me. I have the promise of a full meal tomorrow and a paycheck and love and friends and health.

This has changed our homegroup. We are going to do this every month. It costs very little. It is worth VERY much. We are going to develop relationships with Bob Hope and Rick James. We are going to shine a light. We are going to get off our duffs and DO something for Christ.

Yes. We are busy. We have so much to do. We minister to kids all day and on the weekends.

We need to do this.

YOU need to do this.

How do we teach ..............

a love and respect for God?

Today I almost cried. Right in front of all of the 8th graders, I almost lost it.

One of the boys in my class took God's name in vain so I said his name, then he corrected himself in a mockish voice--oh, sorry, goodness....goodness.... with a roll of the eyes and a shake of the head. I responded with an "ummmm...." He then said how he didn't think there was anything wrong with it and so he was going to continue to do it and he didn't care.

My blood boiled.

Out of anger I responded, Commandment number 3. You shall not take the name of the Lord GOD in vain.

This prompted a "yah, well, I don't care" and another shake of the head.

My heart broke.

I stood there, looking at my book, trying to think of what to do next. I couldn't decide if I was more angry or heartbrokened. Tears started to form in my eyes as I could just feel the hurt of his words to the ears of my Savior. Of my GOD.

How do I teach them to love? How do I teach them to fall in love? How do I teach them to care?

Back to the Blogging World....

Apparently, I'm not updating enough....So, here's a hello to Candy and here's your update :-)

Where to begin.....so much has happened. I know what you're saying in your head (well, Abby, if you would blog more often you would know where to start. It wouldn't be so hard to catch up if you weren't so far behind.) True. True. I have school work to do but if I don't write now, I'll be too tired later. (Don't tell my boss. :~)

Home Life-Isabel moved in over the weekend! YAY!! She's definitely a God-send and super sweet. I can't wait to get to know her better. Erin and I started to think and have found a sticky situation for me coming up in the end of summer. I have to move out before July 31 but I can't fully move in to my "new place" until Jessica gets married and moves out- which is August 22. It's going to be hectic trying to figure out where to put my stuff in that house until it can really be set up. I'm going to vent here, so just bare with me and don't judge. It's frustrating too because I feel like that I should get to set up my stuff because I'm the one going to be staying for a year and she's moving out. I don't want to be inconvienced. I don't want to live out of boxes. I want to set everything up when my parents are here and have their help to get settled. I don't want to have to be really moving in the same week of inservice. I don't think she is going to make it very easy either. I think it's going to be a miserable month. I just need to be flexible (which someone says I always am ;-) and unselfish, BUT I JUST WANT TO BE NORMAL!

School Life- The 4th quarter has begun! Only 9 more weeks of school! Only 6 more weeks for the 8th graders! Standardized tests are the last week of April, so that will be an AMAZING planning and organizing time for me, seeing that I don't teach anything. :-) I have a whole work WEEK. It's the best blessing of being a "specials" teacher. I love Spanish. I'm teaching them about clothing soon! I brought my doll clothes from home so I could have examples. Clothing, verb conjugation, plurals, adjectives, food, vehicles, etc.

As of right now, I'm scheduled to teach Spanish and computers again. The 3rd subject is yet to be determined. That's always dangerous. That contract that states: Abby Peffer is hereby going to be a Teacher at CRCS next year. How binding is that? So indefinite. I'm afraid that I'll be teaching a new class which is dumb because if I'm going to have to learn and prepare something new, then just let me teach History again. I don't love it, but I want to do something two years in a row. I have YET been able to do that and I'll be going on my 4th year of teaching!

Spring Break- YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, really Boooooo because it's over but YAY!!!!!!!!! because it was so amazing. Vickie and Michael came up from FL and had a job interview in MD. Pray that Mike gets this job so they will be so much closer to me! I miss them a ton and would love from them to be 45 mins away (instead of 15 hours!) I saw them in VA before I left for break. I enjoyed Camelot at Slippery Rock. Amy and Andrea were AMAZING. I loved it. I also enjoyed Seussical! presented by Westminster College. It was soo good! I went with Ty, Kari, and Mom. It was the story of Horton hears a Who with songs and dance and an elephant sitting on an egg that a floosy bird didn't want to take care of. She wanted to be free to flirt and dance and party---not take care of her egg. Hmmmm. Interesting, Dr. Seuss.

On Monday I had a date with my mommy and spent a TON of money at the Outlets and ate yummy chinese food (it's a tradition!). I don't think I've ever spent that much money at one time on CLOTHES in my life! But, I saved over half of my total spending, so that's always great to find out, totalling up the receipts and seeing what I saved. Who would ever buy things at full price??!?!?! I'm always in style....just a couple seasons behind :-) And I haven't bought clothes for over a year, so it was time. Tuesday I went and hung out with my nephew. Ahhhh. He just warms my heart. I could just stare at him for hours. Abby (my sis-in-law) was laughing at me jumping up to get him from his nap at his first whimper. He slept more than 45mins past his time to get up. Of COURSE I was anxious to get him! I can't wait to watch him this summer! I wish it was all summer-and it probably could be-but I'm doing other travels. That's another day and another blog entry.

It was just so great to be home. Home is where you can beat up your brothers and finally NOT get in trouble for it but all the while screaming for your mom to help, tease your dad about getting gray and approve his wardrobe choices, and laugh at past goofs with your mom, eat Chinese and create Easter dinner together. Home is where you can pet and sleep with your kitties. Home is where your shower schedule depends on EVERYONE else in the house-and there's a meeting about it (that vicious cycle!) Home is where you can go into your old camper and just listen. the doors. the cabinets. the cubby hole. the drawers. the lightbuld switch. Who ever knew there were so many memories in sounds. Home is where you look around your church family and name every person, and fill in the reasons why they are important in your life. Home is where I get my fill of much needed hugs. Home is where I get to love on the two greatest kids, who ask great questions, who squeal with delight when I chase them around or throw them on sack chair, and say my name in the sweetest way. (well, ONE says my name....we are still workin' on the other one!) and gives me a card with their picture in it.

I love home.


(Blog about Easter at a later date.)

Love Life- BAH! ................. tbdbG. (to be determined by God.)

Social Life- See 'school life'.



SEE!!! This blog is FOREVER LONG! I talk too much and use too much time!! I need to get to sleep. Or do schoolwork.


Ummmmmm......yep. You're right. I choose sleep. ;-)

A series of strange events...

Today was the most bizarre day, and it all happened in the last hour of the day.

At our school we have extended care. Normal, all day teachers don't work this. Who can tolerate the kids at the end of the day for ANOTHER 3 hours after teaching them all day? These kids want to be home. They know they should be home and they go crazy.

For the last 3 days I have worked with 2nd and 3rd graders in extended care because Danielle has been on Spring Break. It has been interesting and stretching. Definitely not making a career change, but it's been okay.

We were all outside today and in the matter of 5 minutes, 3 children got hurt. One girl ran STRAIGHT into a tree, and in the matter of her coming to us, she had a goose egg the entire width of her forehead and blood coming from her mouth. I ran in to get ice while another teacher ran to get her grandma who works at the church. 1 minute later, a girl is SCREAMING on the foursquare court. We run over and find out a kid "threw a rock in the air and it hit her" right below the eye, and she had a black eye by the time we got there. A teacher ran her into the school and got ice. 2 mins later, I hear kids yelling for a teacher and find a kindergartner down for the count after running into a metal pole when chasing someone. He was fine, but we still had to write an accident report for him. About 5 mins later, another kid gets hit in the face with a foursquare ball that has been kicked. He cries and then gets back into the game. Another kid falls flat on his back from the top of a monkey bar thing. His mom was there, and he jumped back up after laying there for a minute, so we didn't have to really deal with that one.

We all felt like it was a horrible dream. Every time we turned around, someone else was hurt. After the 3rd one, I just couldn't handle it. It was such an out of body experience. They were dropping like flies---literally. I thought it a joke after awhile. I thought they were teasing us.

So, moral of the story-don't let kids play on playgrounds. Make them just sit and they'll be fine.

:-)

Volleyball Party!

It's so late, and seeing that I'm not feeling well AT ALL, I should be sleeping.

But tonight was so much fun that I just have to write about it.

Just kidding....I'll write tomorrow.....

Maybe they don't love me...

I don't even understand. I feel like I'm bending over backwards for them. I feel like I'm helping them by discussing things instead of instantly throwing punishment at them. I feel they don't even care.

I feel like giving up.

In the middle school, demerits are thrown around like candy. They are given at every sound, at every talking, at everything that an authority figure thinks is a problem. Therefore, they are useless. The kids who need them have gotten so many they are ineffective. The situations aren't listened to, the kids feel like they aren't heard and are being blamed for the wrong things. Yes, yes. they probably deserved a demerit for something else, yet weren't caught, so this one is legitimate. True, but no excuse to not listen. So, I don't give many demerits. I feel like there has to be something else I can do to them/give them to do, as impact. Or I'm a big idiot, care too much and am too soft, causing the constant commotion in my classroom because of it. I don't know. Who knows. The balance in middle school is SOO hard. They are so annoying yet are growing up. They are so immature but have so many great thoughts. They are hilarious but extremely disrespectful. They love life yet are so self-centered.

They don't care.

I'm trying something new-if the 8th graders do well throughout the week then I'll provide and allow them to chew gum on Friday. Small incentive to get them to at least try or pretend to care. Today was their first time to have it and it didn't go too badly until they started popping bubbles while they were taking tests. I know that I HATED it when people would make noise during a test. It messed my thinking up SO much, so I try to make it silent.

They don't care.

They are all about themselves and no one else. They want EVERYTHING and will work for nothing. They make me SOOOOOOOOOOO MAD! I work so hard at trying to help them. I bring them gum and mints and let them have it during tests and don't give many demerits. AND THEY DON'T CARE. They are still rude, still disrespectful, laugh at EVERYTHING, still sneaky, still SOOO IRRITATING.

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH x 100.

Good thing I have a class coming or tears might start. I can't cry and then teach 1st grade. Too many questions and too many soft hearts that are worried about what's wrong with me.

Praise the Lord it's the weekend.

Kids say....

3rd Grade:
Me: Don't be so dramatic, it'll be okay.
Girl: Yah, don't be a drag queen.
Me (a very quick correction) Drama. Drama queen.
Girl: Or a king, a drama king.
Me: Right, drama king. (phew!)

Kindergartner: You look neat! (what K kid says neat??)

Me to Kindergartner: I like your Pumas. They are really cool. Can I wear them?
Kindergartner: No, they are too small. They are only in kid shoes. But, I think they sell human sizes at the store too.

I look at a 1st grader while I'm teaching, and he's looking at me cross eyed. I stop, look at him, and wait for him to focus. He snaps out of it when he sees I'm looking at him, as if he's not weird for doing it.

Kindergartner: Ms. Senorita Peffer, are we having our siesta today? I'm soo excited for our siesta!! (um...no, it's a fiesta. But, I'd rather have them all come take a nap. That'd be fine too.)

And her name is.....Isabel!

So many times we think that God doesn't hear. Or that God doesn't know what He's doing. OR, that He really doesn't know what we are going through. But....He does.

It's been a battle with searching for another roommate. Who in the WORLD needs a place from April until July in Lorton? NO ONE. I posted it on a church site and then, when no one was answering, I put it on Craig's List. (Not my brother....the website.... :) I got some pretty interesting responses. Most people kept saying they wanted to know if they could "send me money in excess" and have me "send the extra on to Mr. Blah blah." Dad, dear ol' dad saved me from scam after scam. What they are doing is sending you a junk cashier's check, waiting for you to send the extra to someone else, and then the cashier's check is no good-you're out of money AND don't have a new roommate.

I had given up, only finding people looking for roommates, not people looking for places to stay and decided that I'm going to have to just endure this trial of paying 230 extra each month.

AND THEN....Isabel emailed.

I thought it was going to be someone else from Craig's List and was disappointed and skpetical from the start. THEN I saw that she got my info from McLean Bible website...and I got a little excited. We emailed back and forth, Wendy and I trying to see if she was a real person.

She's real. We met her tonight. She's probably going to be our new roommate.

WOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! She's super cute, solid, has a hold on life (unlike some others...) has friends, has a full time job and loves her family. She loved how big the space is and is so grateful that there's a dresser for her to use. It's the same distance for her from work and the traffic wasn't bad. AND.....AND....she has a pretty nice sized TV. YESSSsssssssssss! We're sold. :-)

I'm going to email her tomorrow and tell her that Wendy and I are 100% go for her to come in April and get a read on how she feels about it. I'll let you know if we need help moving her in! AND if she doesn't like it, we even have another person who is looking for our exact situation and needs to leave in July.

Our neighbor was talking to us, telling us about how many times we think God's timing should be NOW and that it's going to be totally wrong if it isn't--and then bam! He shows us again and again and again that He has it under control. It wasn't past His limit. It wasn't outside of His reach or His will.

Prayer requests-I haven't done this before, I don't think, but here it goes.
Wendy's fiance really needs a job and wisdom on future decisions.
I need to find a place to live in the fall, or 2 more roommates to come live here. There are so many things that are up in the air.

And yet...we need to remember that even though it feels past our limits, God knows. He has other limits.

He knows.

A Night at the Movies

I don't know if anyone will appreciate this, but I need to write it down for me. Feel free to read over my shoulder.

Tonight was such a fun and funny night. I laughed so much tonight.

Tonight was a girls night out with Erin and Wendy. (Remember, Wendy is my roommate and a 1st grade teacher at school, Erin is my best friend here and a 3rd grade teacher at school) and we decided that we'd go see Pink Panther tonight. Erin made a crack about seeing Mike (our Sunday school teacher/associate pastor) and Cathy, seeing that the last 3 times we've gone to the movies, they are coming in right after us, usually to see the same movie. We are a group of 20somethings and they are 55+. Hilarious.

As we are walking, I saw one of my 8th graders and his sister, which was my 8th grader last year. Then, in the automated ticket line, I see an 8th grader, a 7th grader, three 5th graders and a 2nd grader and a mom. The 2nd and 5th graders are soo pumped to see me. We talk for a little bit and laugh, then they head off to buy snacks.

Dialogue as follows:
8th Grade boy: Ms. Peffer, what are you seeing?
Me: Pink Panther.
8th: Noo!! Really?
8th Grader's mom: Oh yah? So you'll keep an eye on them? ;-)
Me: Nooo! It's after hours. I'm not responsible for any of them.

(I purchase ticket)

Same 8th Grader returns to me: Ms. Peffer, were you serious about seeing Pink Panther?
Me: Yes, see? (show ticket stub)
8th: Man! I gotta tell 7th grade boy! Hey! She is! She's wasn't kidding!

Then I see 6th grader and her dad walk in, laugh and buy tickets, then go back out. Erin goes and gets seats before we are stuck near the kids. I see my favorite 8th grade girl and yell down to her. HEY!!!! She waves with embarrassment. :-) Mission accomplished.

We sit and then 5th graders and 2nd grader come and sit right behind us. I loved it. Their comments and laughs were priceless. They made the movie 3x as funny with their crazy comments.

A guy is lying on the floor and 5th grader asks: what? they aren't even going to help him up?
Me,turning around: S, he's dead!
S: Ohhhhh.......I thought he was asleep!
D: Look at that horrible dress!
J: (missed a line about foreplay, everyone is laughing) What did he say?
I love it when they don't get jokes. It's great.

We are leaving the theater and I see my newest 8th grader and he doesn't look at me, yet he's saw me.
Me: Hey A!
A: DON'T say anything!!!! (he said this in such a way that he was embarrassed but liked it enough to make a joke out of it.)
Me: oh um....so sorry.... and put my hand at the side of my face so he can't see me.

We walk outside and there's a posse of 7th and 8th graders. There's at least 13 of them. They all look and act so funny, giving little weird waves and small comments. We laughed and laughed and walked over to get icecream. About 5 mins later, as our backs are turned to the door, Erin sees the posse coming to the shop. They see us, double over in laughter/agony, point and then refuse to come in because we are in there. Again, we errupt with laughter.


There were so many great things that I gathered from this experience.

1. I am everyone of those kids' teacher. I knew them all. Wendy and Erin don't know them, but I have some sort of connection with each one of them.
2. I LOVED seeing how awkward and embarrassed they were as middle schoolers seeing their teacher in public.
3. I think it's sooo funny that they acted as if we were old and decrepit and it would be weird to see their teachers at a movie theater.
4. It was a bunch of kids, hanging out together, from the same Christian school. Sometimes kids just endure their Christian school friends until they can hang out with their other friends. This was a good group of kids seeing a decent movie.
5. They wouldn't DARE eat ice cream at the same place as us, even AFTER we saw them come and then walk away.
6. I truly do love them. I loved seeing them tonight.
7. They are going to talk about this for a week. And....some might not ever forget it. :-)
   

As I replayed all of these events in my head on the way home, I just kept smiling.

I love being a teacher.

The bee is dead.

They have killed the bee!!!

For the past year and 1/2, there has been a "bee" buzzing in my light in the Spanish classroom. There have been multiple requests to get it fixed and nothing has been done about it. Until today.

This is the routine thing that happens with this light. You turn the light on, it buzzes for about 15 minutes. Then, the light dims a bit, and in 5 mins, because I haven't moved around in the classroom, the light turns off. As soon as I stand up, the light turns on, and the buzzing begins again.

OR, I finally get the buzzing to stop and I have to turn the lights off so my students can see the projector and the powerpoint. Then, I turn the lights back on and BBBBBBZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... how in the world can students think with that?? They couldn't. I couldn't. I would have this sense of HUGE relief when the buzzing would stop.

Today was the day of the killing.

He came in and change the little box in it that was suuuuupppper hot (the balast). There was melted plastic and other stuff that showed him that this should have been changed long ago. It could have been a fire hazard.

So, no more buzzing, no more bee and no more irritation!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!

Baby, it's cold INside...

Tuesday morning, our maintenance man pops his head into prayer meeting and asks us to pray for the boiler.

The BOILER???

At 7 am, the boiler went kablooey. We had school Tuesday and then we were told to dress warm for Wednesday and he would see how it was Wed. morning and then make the call about what to do next. There is a boiler in the area that we can get, but it takes 3 days to get it and then 5 days to install.

So, Wed. came and went, a little chillier, but not too bad. Then, last night the low was about 15 degrees, leaving the building without heat in cold weather for over 36 hours. This morning it was 56 degrees in our classrooms. And STILL...we had school. There was ice on the INSIDE of my classroom window today. There are space heaters in each room, which constantly trips the breaker. I borrowed Erin's for a little bit and I'm still saving the heat in my room by keeping the door closed. The kids think it's great that they get to wear their coats in the classroom, or wrap up in blankets while learning about David and Goliath. Harold brought around hot chocolate to all of the classes today for an extra special treat.

It's all cute and fun.....but it's cold. And it's going to keep getting colder. And it won't be cute and fun anymore after today. Today's not even very fun. Tomorrow we are having our Black History Celebration with a program and a lunch served to the kids-fried chicken, collard greens, maccaroni and cheese, etc. It's going to be very cold tomorrow. And we will still have school. It won't be cancelled because of the program.

I always wanted to be one of those kids whose school name was on the ticker at the bottom of the news station and beside it said: no heat.

Well. Calvary Road Christian School: No heat. Yes school.

LET'S GO STEELERS!!!!!!

HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!!!

On Friday, we had a Sports Team day as our last day of Spirit Week. I wanted to call all of the Steelers fans to the office so I could get a picture, but it didn't happen. Here are the few that I got!

1st grader Tracey and me.

All of these kids were in ONE kindergarten class!

Maysa, Adam, Julianna and her teddybear, Stephanie and Grant.

Yesterday I got the coolest thing in the mail, too. My mom called me and told me to check the mail. I went out and found a package and then told mom, I KNOW WHAT IT IS!!! It's a Steelers' Tshirt! She told me no, and I was bummed. Then I ripped it open and...YESSS!!! I was right! An AFC Championship Tshirt with Palamalu and Ben. It's beautiful!

But, what's more beautiful is the fact that my parents sent it to me. It made me so happy. I asked mom, as I was opening it if there was a note inside. She said, nope, Dad sent it. You get what you ordered, nothing else. No love. :-) But, it was full of love. Thanks Mom and Dad!

So, I'm all geared up, along with my Steelers football balloon I bought for myself at the grocery store, and I'm off to Taby and Greelpy's to hang out with the homegroup.

GO STEELERS!!!!!!

Snow Day #2

I didn't think it could even happen. BUT, again, my favorite person called me this morning. (I have now entered her in my phone book as **SNOW DAY!!!*** ) She called earlier this time-5:26. I was still in bed and not the shower. Double bonus. :-) Went over and woke up Wendy again. Again, with the "ARE YOU SERIOUS!??!", a hug, a phone call to the next chain member, and back to bed.

Well...I tried to go back to sleep. My mind was all over, thinking about the joy of another snow day and what we would do. I also got an email from someone and was thinking about how I was going to respond. I woke up around 9 and then made pancake for roommate and I. No, I didn't forget the s. I only had enough to make a pancake for each of us, but when doctoring it up with chocolate chips, we were in heaven.

Left over chinese for lunch, another movie and then project: organization. We moved things around and set up a shelf in the closet and did our best to get things done.

All in all, it was another great day. :-) We iceskated to the mailbox and chipped the ice off of our cars. I'm glad I took the snow off the day before or it would NOT have been a fun task.

**SNOW DAY** didn't wake me up this morning, so we are all back at school, bright and early. It's just today (a LONG day, working extended care for someone until 6 and then dinner and orchestra) and tomorrow and then a weekend.

I could get use to this!

Snow Day!!!

I got a call at 6:02 from my favorite person. The person right above me in the phone chain that tells us if we have a snow day or not.

SNOW DAY!!!

I am supposed to call my roommate (yep, there are 2 diff. phone numbers, so we are two diff. people on the chain) so I walked over to her room and woke her up. She groaned as I said, guess what....(thinking she had overslept and was waaaay late) and then I said, we have snow day! She JUMPED out of bed SO fast and we did a huge dance and squealed and hugged, etc, etc. It's the Snow Day dance. One of our fellow teachers actually HURT herself doing the Snow Day dance. Sheesh! It was Wendy's first snow day as a teacher so it was so cute seeing her reaction. I don't think I'll ever get use to this. It's always so fun.

I just got out of the shower when she called so I dried my hair and jumped back in bed and slept until 10. Then I watched Annapolis which is a great movie, ate Mommy's homemade vegetable soup and then popped in good ole Titanic. I also reorganized my files in my really cool filing cabinet I got from Candy. Wendy and I also ordered Chinese because...that's what you do on a snow day. You order Chinese.

I also had the joy of cleaning off our cars. If you know me, you know I like doing things myself. I didn't like it tonight. I needed a guy to clean off my car. He needed to shovel and spread salt and do the manly work around the house. Not me. :-( I would have done a great job at making hot chocolate for him.

I should have taken pictures first. It's no "PA snow" but it's good enough for us! It's icy and supposed to be icy rain all night. YEAH!!!!! Let's hope for another one tomorrow!

I didn't do any school work or anything today. I've sat here with my laptop and wrote emails and caught up on things online. AND I don't regret a single CENT I spent on this laptop. It's amazing. I love that I am watching TV in my living room and emailing my friends. Priceless.

Pray for more snow! I'm going to wear my pjs inside out, sleep with spoons under my pillow and flush icecubes down the toilet...I hear that gets us a snow day....?

PS-You'll never guess what my fortune cookie said. "The days you work are the best days". Bahhh! Today I did no work and it was a "best day". :-)

Car ride Intercession

I've been told by my Sunday School teacher/ associate pastor that it's okay to take a drive and have it out with God as if He's in the passenger seat. He tells us that he looks over and yells and throws up his arms and really gets in God's face. Then, God talks back.

I had it out with God tonight. Yep.

I yelled at Him, yelled to Him, let Him know my thoughts and my wants dealing with this matter of my roommate leaving in the middle of the lease. I told Him my list of things that weren't fair. I told Him all of the things I want to happen. I told Him how I wanted it to go. I told Him when I want the new roommate to move in. I told Him all the things I'm going to say to her about this whole thing. I told Him that I was glad this was happening so she would get out of my life and I wouldn't have to deal with her anymore. I told Him that I didn't care if she was sick and that she lives in a different world and that she think illogically. Stinks to be her. But that shouldn't affect her getting a job and paying us for rent. Tears were rolling, heart was aching. It's hard to merge on the highway when tears are blurring your vision.

Then...God talked back.

He started bringing to mind ALL of the things I needed to praise Him for.

I have a job-Praise You
I have a place to live-Praise YOU
I have parents who could help me out if I needed it-Praise YOU
I have friends-Praise YOU
I have friends ALL OVER THE WORLD--Praise YOU
I have people who care about me-Praise YOU
I have money-Praise YOU
I have a grasp on reality and live in this world-Praise YOU
I'm not sick-Praise YOU
No one in my family is sick-Praise YOU
I HAVE A NEPHEW-Praise YOU
I have a car-Praise YOU
I have gas in my car-Praise YOU

The tears stopped. Peace fell on my heart.

Yeah, this thing really stinks. But, God knows. He knew this before time. He knew that she'd get sick. He knew that I'd get mad at her. Really mad. He knows who the next roommate will be. He knows how much stress this roommate has brought and how this is a way to end this chapter in my life. He knows that I might think that it's a pain if she leaves her bedroom furniture because there is no place to store it, but now I can advertise a fully furnished basement.

This isn't fair. True statement.

God isn't fair. True statement.

If He was fair, I'd be going to Hell.

God, thank You for not being fair and thank You for all of the understanding You have and are giving me through this.

Please pray.