Yikes.

So, this evening I was coloring Easter Eggs at my parent's house with my niece and nephew and we discussed how my housing situation is unstable. For those of you who don't know, Josh's Aunt's Friend's Mother owns the house that we are living in and we are taking care of it for her while she is in an old folk's home. So the deal is that we watch the house and we live here for free. The deal also used to include taking care of the old lady's dog, but Kiko got sick and died on Easter weekend.

Anyways, so after talking with my Mom and Sister about how our housing is not stable, Josh comes home tonight and says that he talked to his Aunt and she said that the house owner is going downhill and that we should expect to be out of here by the end of the year because the owner is going downhill. That means finding a new place to live that is big enough for Josh's homerun business and yet cheap enough for us to afford. Umm, yeah.

So. My world is changing once more. Can Josh and I even afford to live in Southern California when we have to pay for our own housing? I sort of think not. Being in grad school does not equal big bucks. In fact, it equals very few bucks, especially as I am contracted to do my student teaching next semester and that means working September through January basically full-time with no pay. So I need to find a good-paying part time job. They have these somewhere, yes? I mean, I have a bachelor's for crying out loud, I should be able to make money part-time somewhere. I think that the best luck I would have would be as a tutor because I can charge up the nose for tutoring - min of $30/hour. But where do I find people who want their kids tutored?

Anyways, so the pressure is turning up under Josh and I to go forth and make money so that we avoid ending up on the steets. I would say we should move somewhere cheaper, but until I'm done with grad school, that's a no-go. So, please pray. Please pray that God provides for us (as he always does) and that we will have jobs that support us and a roof that protects us . . . while still being able to pay for food and gas. Thanks so much guys! I know that prayers do a lot. God listens to the prayers of the righteous - so go be righteous and THEN pray for us. ::grin:: Let us see what great place God is leading us to.

Of war and violence

I don't know a lot. I don't like war, but I do like violence.I think that I would really enjoy being in the military, until it came to killing people. I love hiking, shooting, sparring, and all sorts of physical activity/survival things . . . I just don't want to kill anyone, especially someone that I am just ordered to kill. If I were to ever kill someone I would have to be convinced by evidence of the fact that they deserved to die.

I really do like violence though. It's rather fun.

Oh well, off to bed and then tomorrow work and more thesis writing.

Horchata, mmm

I made horchata tonight. It turns out that this yummy drink is relatively easy to make - just boil rice, water, sugar, cinnamon, and lime together for a few hours. You have to drain out what is left of the rice, but it is really good. Speaking of which, horchata leftover-rice is really good too. Sort of like a yummy oatmeal type thing. Really good when warm and mushy!

BTW - this post is being typed from my new (used) laptop. Yay! Josh was wonderful and found me a laptop so now it will be that much easier to type my master's thesis from a library or other location. Don't I have a great guy? I think so!

On other news, please keep praying for me while I figure out job stuff for next year, and please pray that I get placed for student teaching where God wants me. My life is so not in my own control right now. I really feel oddly unable to affect much of anything right now ::grin:: except maybe my students.

Today I discovered that it doesn't take being a mom to turn me into my mother, well, ok, father. I found myself quoting, nearly word for word, a lecture that I heard from my father (sometimes directed at me and sometimes at my siblings)about how you don't have to respect the teacher, but you do have to respect the position. I added in my own bit about how when you grumble about a teacher when she isn't around it is the same as talking behind someone's back. They weren't being disrespectful to me (because they aren't stupid enough to do it when I'm around), but were complaining about other teacher's styles. It was really cool that I had that speech all ready-to-go in my memory from not so long ago . . . and it was even cooler to find out how much I agreed with it and I was glad that I took my father's advice all those years ago. Huh. Way to go Dad.

So Jess, does this make you wonder what words of yours and Adam's Brigid and Sam will someday say? LOL! That's just too funny to think about!

Everything and All of it

In this post I will attempt to tell you:
1. Job news
2. All about Hebrew School
3. My cool cookie today
4. How my awesome husband went out of his way to help me today

Job News:
Well, I have been offered a full time position being a secretary next year at ISF. My Whittier Christian Principal made some noises about maybe having some teaching job for me next year. And (this is really so cool) I got a letter in the mail today from the Whittier Union High School District saying how pleased they were to meet me at the Biola Teacher Job Fair and that they wanted to encourage me to apply for a job with them. We are talking La Serna type high schools here folks - very cool and very exciting. This district is the type I want to work at and in the area that I want to work in. Very exciting!

All about Hebrew School:
As part of the research that I'm doing for my thesis I went and observed a Hebrew class yesterday at the local Jewish Temple. Let me just say that the Rabbi was extremely kind to me - allowing me to go there on very short notice. Also, the lady teaching the class was one that I went to high school with and her older sister, another of my old classmates, was there too. It was really cool because I got to talk with her for an hour about God and then I got to see some really cute fourth graders learning Hebrew. And yes, I did gather some good information there for my thesis. Yay! It was so strange though, to be in a place of worship and not feel the presence of the Holy Spirit when I walked in. It was like the building was just an empty building ... which I guess it was. All this to say, I am inspired to pray more for God's chosen people.

My Cool Cookie Today:
About five minutes before school started today one of my gawky (but funny and very awesome) 14-year-old boy students walked into my classroom and plopped a giant cookie on my desk without a word. I looked up and asked, "What's that for?" and he said, "That is to get you to come back and teach next year. You are the first Spanish teacher that I have done well with." And then he turned around and walked out of the classroom and didn't come back until the bell rang. It was such a fourteen-year-old boy sort of thing to do, running out of words, getting embarrassed, and walking away like that, but his making me a cookie and saying that to me was so amazingly sweet that I had to work to keep myself from crying. It was just amazing. I felt so appreciated - way more than I have before in my life. Wow. I was blessed. I want to coat that cookie in bronze and keep it forever ... but I won't.

How my awesome husband went out of his way to help me today:
Josh was so cool to me today! I had an item that I had purchased and needed to go and pick up from the vendor, and he drove me there and back. Also, when we opened the item at home and discovered that they had put some of the wrong parts in there, he was totally willing to drive the 1/2 hour all the way back over there to get the right parts for me. Wow! What a husband! (I ended up talking on the phone with the vendor and arranging to mail the parts back while they mailed me the correct parts - so Josh didn't have to go, but he was willing to go and that is what counts).

So, I'm doing ok right now. Life is still busy. But I am blessed beyond measure. God is so good to me! I could never do what I'm doing without all the support that I have and all that good that comes to me I know is from the One who loves me best. As my niece's books says, Thank you dear God!