PrsGodAlways's Xanga

Officially Grown up

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:29:22 GMT

I made my first grown up purchase. I bought furniture. "What might Sarah need for such a small space?" you might be thinking. I bought a book shelf for $15 at Big Lots. Oh yeah. I need something to put my TV on so I can reclaim my desk space. I think it is wide enough for that purpose but we will see. I think I might ask my nice boy friend to help me put it together. I am grown. Yep. It finally happened.

Much Better

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:35:22 GMT

Sleep does amazing things for a body. I am still slightly overwhelmed but the feeling has diminshed greatly. Greatly... bulletin boards and minor housekeeping things are really all the work left in my room. Lots of laminating to be done though. I can't wait for the kids. As I wasted hours in meetings this week I kept reminding myself I am in this for the children. Teacher meetings ar enot the most exciting thigns in the world. Some of it was useful. I do wish the state would sit through the trainings they make us go through and see if they really think it helps. I was very honest in my evaluations when they asked me what I thought of some of these trainings. Now on to a story about another adventure in the life of Sarah

Thursday I spent the work day in meetings. I made it to school to work in my room at about 4:00 PM. I work and at 6:00 PM I pack up my stuff. I am walking out of my room by 6:10. This gives me 20 minutes to load up my car and get to church for Bible study. My arms are full and I set my stuff down by my car. I dig out my purse and start searching for my keys. I search and search. I empty bags. Finally I realize that I left my keys sitting on my cubbies (a form of shelving as you enter my room). There is one other car in the lot and so I start walking around the school building and peeking in windows. I bang on doors. I bang on windows. I can't find anyone.

So I call my land ladya nd her unlock my cottage. Then I send my friend over to get my spare car key and I will just retrieve all the keys the next day when the whole school is unlocked. I know exactly where my spare is located. it is in my little red bag sitting on my desk. My friend calls and says that she has found the bag but there is not a key in it. Then I remember that my dad has my spare key. Gah. So there is only one option left. Walk to my principals house and ask her to let me back into the school because her phone number is locked in my school binder in my car. So I start walking. I think it is fairly close. I have driven there once. I keep walking.

I keep walking. I keep walking. I finally take my sandals off and walk barefooted because my nicer school sandals are not marathon walking sandals. Finally I make to the end of this street at the very back of the neighborhood. Then I can't remember exactly which house is hers at the end of this street.

After examining yards I decide that the not cluttered looking yard is my principal's house, because she is hates clutter. (She vehemently hates clutter so much so that it will go into your personnel file if you clutter up your room and do not clean it out). I ring a door bell and she answers. Of course I am so embarrassed. My principal always looks cute and I am nasty from working my room. However she is really sweet and drives me back to school and lets me in the building. on the way there she tells me that i have walked a mile.

Moral of the story: I have an awesome principal. And don't lock your keys in the school building.

Overwhelmed

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:12:41 GMT

Overwhelmed describes me very well right now. In college they don't prepare you for how overwhelmed you feel as a new teacher. There are rules to follow, schedules to make, lessons to plan, and a whole room to clean, organize, and prepare for approximately 20 little bodies! Aiyayi! GAHHHHH! Losing my mind here. I have already had to remind myself of why I am doing this and remember that the students are the most important thing and I need to be prepared to help them. I am there to be alight to the kids and everything else will fall into place. I am not sure how married people do this teaching thing for the first time. I spent two hours in the teacher supply and left with virtually nothing to help get my walls done. Gah again. Oh how I have come to loathe meetings that take me away from my room during my best hours of the day. I need to change my focus or just get some sleep. Sleep will make things look better in the morning.

Need my roomies

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:41:31 GMT

I need my roommates... Living by myself is an adventure. Praise the Lord He takes care of me and placed me in avery safe part of town. So here is why I need my roommates.

Growing up I never ever locked the doors at night. Locking doors was my parents job when I was really little. Then as we stayed out later it became my brothers job. I went to college and my roommates always took care of locking the door. I am too trusting of a person, I guss, I never worried about it. I knew especially if Liz was home the dooor would be locked by her. So living alone means locking the door. The first night I spent alone I remembered to lock the door. However many nights since then I have forgotten to lock my door. So when I come home for the last time of the day I have made it my habit to lock the door. Last night I unlocked my door, set my stuff down, and then said good bye to Josh (he always gets out of the car and walks me to the door, isn't he sweet?). I then came in and locked my doors. I am very proud of myself for remembering to lock both bolts and go to bed feeling safe and happy with myself. This morning I was leaving and began searching for my keys. I looked everywhere. Finally I decided to see if I had left them in the car (this is impossible since I have to unlock the cottage door and the car key is on the same key ring as the house key but I was desperate). Lo and behold what should bang against the door as I first unlock and then open it? My keys. Yes, my keys stayed in the door all night, and my pride at the fact that i had locked the door was gone. Good thing I am in a safe neighborhood and God watches over me. I really need my roommates to look out for me too. Liz, Jenn, and Tolie I miss y'all!

My Life Now

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:59:54 GMT

Wow. As I sit back and reflect over the last 3 months so much has happened to me. I went from a place of uncertainity to knowing where I would work to finding a place to live to earning money to survive my first weeks as a poor school teacher. God is so faithful. Through the entire process He has held my hand and guided me. I attended five weddings and managed not to spend them pining for things that are not yet to be. Most recently since coming back to TX from Mexico I did VBS. I felt cheated of all the excitement because I was placed in the nursery with the babies. Six babies ranging from 16mos to 3yrs, four walls, no windows, one bookshelf, one crib, one changing table, and numerous toys in a small contained space. I love teaching and felt a little cooped up. As I was contemplating pleading insanity and not showing up several people (who I might add don't have children in the nursery) thanked me for my ministry to the littlest ones. Then someone mentioned how I should teach them something during those almost 4 hours I have them. So I started reading Bible stories and talking with the kids and saw more teachable moments than I could count. And I found myself having fun. I was really and truly having a blast. I loved playing with the babies and talking with the other nursery workers. Then the week ended and I moved to Marshall. SUnday was a very refreshing time for me. God reaffirmed to me that Marshall was the place He wanted me through the people I talked with and the message in church and the time I spent alone with Him. I am happy here. I am learning to live alone, to budget my time wisely, and to enjoy solitude, which is a little hard for this social creature. I will admit that I am ready for my college friends to come back. I am ready to have people to call and see if they wanna go to WalMart just because we can. But I am content, happy, and at peace with life.

Now if I could just get my classroom the way I want it.

Charlotte Anne Banister

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:24:09 GMT

Mommy (Jamie) and Jonathan (Daddy) love their new baby!

Charlotte Anne Banister 5 lbs 6 ozs 18 inches long

my beautiful niece with her Aunt Sarah holding her

Isn't she cute?

Marshall

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:55:15 GMT

Marshall.. Oh how I love you. Some how I keep ending up back here in Marshall, whether I want to be or not. I move here officially Saturday July 26 but had to come sign my lease and pay my deposit or the lady was going to give my cottage away. Then I decided to stay another day to hang out with Josh's amazing mom, renee', and go birthday shopping. That was an adventure. I have realized how when you share a bind with someone in the Lord it is a precious thing. I am tired of being in transition. I am ready to be here and moved and settled and teaching. Today I visited my classroom so I could dream. That was fun. The wonderful Dr. Lubcker is going to come help me clean out my classroom. I am so crazy excited about that. I have 3 filing cabinets and 4 book shelves along with floor to ceiling cabintes on one wall. The cabinets are packed with junk and no organization. I am so ready to get in there and clean it out! I can't wait. The new teacher across the hall from me is a first year teacher and she's young too. I am praying that all of us working in first grade bond as a team and enjoy it. Your coworkers can make or break the enjoyment of a job. I enjoyed teaching sixth grade because of the teachers I worked with. I am exhausted. I really should take more time to recover from busyness before i get busy again.

All the Way Around the World and Back Again

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:17:56 GMT

I feel as if I have been all the way around the world and back again. Actually I have only been to Morelia in Mexico but it was a 20 some odd hours trip in a 15 passenger can with 13 people most of them being big grown men or almost grown big boys. Tha was a really long car trip. That was probably the worst part of the whole trip. We went down there for the primary purpose of helping a new church get started by doing evangelism campaigns. I have no idea what God is doing with what we did I just know I learned alot about myself. First things first

1. It is easier ot be godly when you have had enough sleep and something to eat.

2. God speaks English and Spanish since He made all the people He speaks all languages (never really took time to thing about this before)

3. Kids speak a universal language of "Let's go play!" and I know this language well.

4. Real tamales are good and very different from TexMex tamales.\

5. I don't adapt to new situations well.

6. I am not a night person and all of Mexico is.

7. I like to build relationships with people. My favorite thing was talking to individuals and getting to know them.

8. The Mexican people will read tracts. IN America they might read one tract in every five you hand out. IN Mexico they stop to read what you give them.

9. Raw cow head are disgusting.

10. It is only polite to eat all of the food presented to you.

If you want to know more about my trip call me and I will regale you with the tales.

Death to Doodle bugs and all other meaningful things in life

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:53:02 GMT

Well, death to doodlebugs was the pertinent thing in my title. We had a quite a rain last week and ever since then the doodlebugs have decreased dramatically. Then I finished my job filling in at Glove Guard. I enjoyed the people I worked with, but am so glad to have a life again or not come home tired from work every day. Not quite ready to do the "grown up" thing. I will be soon enough come August 14. August 14 is when I start teacher inservice meetings. Yay! I am going to have a good attitude about going to these meetings. I am. I don't like meetings so it will be challenging, but I will view it as another adventure in life. IN three weeks I will packing to go to Mexico for 9 days. My church is taking a mission trip to Mexico and I am going with them! I am so excited. Totally a last minute plan and I love it. I have wanted to go since it was mentioned in the beginning, but the pieces only recently fell into place. God is good like that. I got spend five great hours with the amazing Holly Butler and that was so great. I missed her like crazy while she was gone. I also went to a sleep over and had lots of fun. Except that i was the first one to fall asleep and missed a lot of the fun. But then I got up early this morning and enjoyed the watching the others sleep. It was beautiful with light streaming in the window and Danielle has a beautiful yard. I wanted my Bible and journal so bad. Instead I sat there and thought for a while before get a book and reading the morning hours away. The first people woke around 9:30 am and most everyone was up by 10:30am. It was fun. I was considered young enough to join these amazing high school girls for a sleep over. I know I am in love with the most amazing man because he was all I could tlak about. Those poor girls heard all about Josh. They would bring him up and I would talk their ears off. Oh the fun of being in love. NOw I am tired. I don't recover from sleep overs like I used to. Oh the joy of growing up. It was worth it though. God has been so good and I am enjoying my summer.

What did you do this summer?

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:01:51 GMT

Ahh... the question that becomes ever so popular about late August and early September. What did you do this summer? well, I can answer with great satisfaction that I did battle with a most unusual enemy and while I am not victorious yet, I am fully confident that I will be.

You might be thinking "Who could sweet Sarah be doing battle with?". I am fighting a battle of a most unusual nature. I have been entrusted with the sacred job of keeping Glove Guard, LP clean. Everyday an army invades my precious building. Every day I sweep, vaccuum, and Swiffer the culprits away. Everyday I find them dead all over my building. Everyday I throw the live ones out. What am I battling? Some might call them cute, others say precious, still others cringe because they are gross. THey have one name, but several alias to the common public. They are Armadillidium vulgare also known as doodle bugs, pill bugs, and roly polys. They have invaded my domain! My sanctuary of cleanliness. I would not have a problem except they crawl into the building and curl up into corners and die. Then I have to find them and clean them up. They make gross crunching noises when stepped on, and spots on my clean floors.

Doodlebugs,

Please take note that I will have revenge for the trouble you cause me. I will be victorious. I will not lose. My buliding will be free from your evil plots to eat our concrete and destroy our foundation thus overthrowing the newest almost world power. (Ok, so newest world power might be a bit of an exaggeration) but I see your plot and you will not be victorious. i do not mean to be vicious and I do not want to harm you, so please, just leave my building alone.