Sad day for the Wilsons

Some of you may know from Facebook that Tuesday night, my mama and daddy decided to put our dog, Viki, to sleep. She was 15 years old, had tumor masses on her bladder and spleen, and she was losing her sight and hearing. It was a difficult decision for my parents to make, but she was in such bad condition that she could hardly even move and she would only lay on the floor and whimper. It's easy for me to distance myself from the pain she was in because I didn't see her much, just on the weekends. I'm sad for the loss of our faithful friend and family member, but I'm also sad that my parents are so hurt and sad too. I had to leave last night when they started talking about her and tears began welling up in my mom's eyes. I could tell that my daddy was trying his hardest not cry too. I hope that I didn't come off as insensitive by leaving so quickly. But the one thing that I cannot handle more than losing someone in the family is seeing my parents cry. My parents are liek superheroes to me. When my daddy rear-ended another car, my mama was livid (money and insurance reasons--no one was injured, by the way), and I let out a quick laugh, but on the inside, I was sad. My daddy, my superman, is human and flawed. I remember the day mama told me that Viki had tumors. She could hardly speak she was so choked up. I felt the tears coming as soon as I saw her red eyes. It made me sad to know that Viki was sick, but even worse to think about how sad it would make my parents.

Dear Viki,
You were always a great companion, even when I didn't think you liked me or when you stared at me and it kinda creeped me out. You made Mama and Daddy immeasureably happy, usually when us kids made them angry. You were a great listener, mostly because you never interrupted or told me something I didn't want to hear or talked about yourself. In fact, you'd really just roll over and let me rub your belly when I was venting about my teenaged, adolescent woes. It was nice. You were definitely a great source of entertainment! Sometimes it felt wrong to be so amused by you and your lack of sense... not that I really have room to talk. I'm pretty sure I've run into that wall just as many, if not more, times as you did. The house will feel empty and quiet without you, and you can never be replaced. But to know that you are now running around without pain gives me comfort. I just hope that that will give me enough comfort and strength to take care of mama and daddy the way you did. I love you, fuzzy one!

Back in the Boro again!

I wish I had some pictures to put up here, but I don't. Sad. But I did want to update this for my fellow blog stalkers! I'm back at school and back in my grandma's den (which is frigidly cold right now! brrrrr!!!) I started a new internship at a new school with a new teacher and new students. I'm in a 6th grade language arts class. The school is really new, like only 3ish years old, so it's full of new technology, environment friendly features, and carpeted classrooms. Cool!! I'm enrolled in a political science class that scares the ever-living out of me, an online class that I keep forgetting about and a sociology class that I absolutely love! The professor has the timing and delivery of a stand-up comic, so things are never boring! This semester, I'm in my Language Arts methods class to teach me how to teach LA. Last semester was social studies and it totally put a fire under my love for history, and now I'm thinking that I would love to teach social studies, maybe more than English! Hopefully, this semester will even it out and I'll be happy with whatever position I find myself in for the fall of next year! Oh my goodness, I'll be graduating next spring and out in the real world in only a year and a half! Time sure does fly when you're in college for five years! Hahaha
On a more serious note, I am, just like most of us, deeply saddened about the tragedy in Haiti. I've been thinking and praying, hurting and loving since I heard about it the night it happened. It's hard to remember our good and faithful Lord when so many people are in pain, suffering from hunger and thirst, longing for their lost loved ones, the destruction of their homes, schools, hospitals and churches. Thankfully, church isn't just a building. I was thinking last night about bad things that happen on castastrophic levels (because I'm currently reading through Jeremiah, in which God is raining down His wrath on the people of Israel and Judah). I remembered Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami of '05(?)... Even through these disasters, we can still (and should still) praise God. I remembered how silly it is that we worry about things because He's got it all in His hands (didn't mean to reference the song, but it works). He makes these things happen for a reason. We don't know the reasons, but we have to trust that He's got it. It's heartbreaking, nonetheless. Losing friends and family is never an easy thing to do, and we have to believe that our friends in Haiti who lost their lives found themselves at the gates of Heaven.
.....I went all A.D.D. and totally forgot what else I was going to say. I guess my point is that God knows everything that goes on in this world. He makes the sun rise, the wind blow and the rain fall. If it's an earthquake He wants, an earthquake will shake the earth. But it's all to remind us of who is in control and that He is the most wonderful, merciful, wrathful, graceful, loving Father that we have ever known. We can only pray that the lost souls of Haiti find their way into the light of Christ, a place of forgiveness and comfort, healing and strength.
Remember: "We are to love one another, for love comes from God" ~1 John 4:7

Been A While

It's been over three months since I've blogged. So much has gone on. I had a wonderful semester at UNCG (two As and two Bs), as well as a first internship at Guilford Middle School. I had an awesome OSTE. She is a third year teacher, teaching one language arts class and two social studies classes. My two concentrations. Awesome! She graduated from UNCG in 2007. She even tried out for the last cycle of America's Next Top Model when they allowed short girls to try out... we've never measured but I think I may have an inch on her, and it's hard to find people shorter than me! Anyway, we had a fun semester together. It's good to develop relationships early in the game to have plenty of resources later. I do admit that there were some days when I wanted to change my major because I thought that there was no way I could be a teacher. But I survived, and in the end, I love it. I love teaching and I can't wait to have my own classroom!!
The first weekend in November, I went to Boone with my wonderful Sunday School class. We rented out a beautiful cabin and had an awesome weekend, eating good food, playing catch phrase (girls, we have much work to do!), enjoying a good old fashioned Mountaineer butt-kicking football game, and just spending time in fellowship with each other. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures... Christy got a ton on her blog though. But here are a few.

The girls at the game
The view from the back porch
The upper back porch... yes, there were two porches... the bottom one had the hot tub that was definitely empty that weekend.
The beautiful sunset at the end of the wonderful weekend. I can't wait to do it again!

I had a great Thanksgiving! Everyone showed up at Memaw's and we had some gooooooood food! I love turkey!The Wilson clan

With the most recent addition, our precious baby Cadence
Jamie and Bobbie with her kids and Memaw
Jonathan and Amy with her boys, Cadence and Memaw
Me and Blair with Memaw and Uncle Randy... no kids for us!
The boys with Memaw
The girls with Memaw... love that smile on Cadence's face!!

December seemed to fly by! December 1st was another birthday for both of my memaws (grandmas) and the three year anniversary of me and Blair's first date. December 2nd was the second anniversary of my baptism and would have been Cecilia's little brother's 12th birthday. I always think about him on his birthday, even though I never got the chance to meet him. He has a large part in getting me where I am now with the Lord.
December 8th was my last day of the semester. It was a stressful day, but I got through it! On the 13th, I took myself off my mom's phone plan and joined Blair's... that's a two year commitment! We were having a conversation about it, he said something about it costing a hundred bucks or something to terminate my phone line and I said, "So in the eyes of Verizon, we're like married!" We're dorks. It's okay, though. At least we know it. The week after that, we started Durham Christmas Pageant rehearsals because the shows were on the 19th and 20th. I made it to both the rehearsals, but at 2am on the 19th, I woke up with a horrible cramp in my stomach. I went to the bathroom because I felt like I was going to throw up, but the cramp spread through my entire upper body and the pain was so bad that I passed out. Scared the ever living out of Blair. I came to and proceeded to throw up for the next five hours. It was awful! Needless to say, I wasn't in the Pageant that day. I stayed in bed all day, finally ate around 6, went back to bed shortly after and made it to both church and the Pageant on Sunday. Then, I couldn't believe that there were only 5 days left until Christmas. I worked and shopped and wrapped presents and actually got to go to a Christmas party (I had to work through the first three that I wanted to go to). Christmas came. Everyone made it to our house. We ate some good food, enjoyed watching Cadence stumble around in her toddler swagger and generally had a good time with each other. Of course, someone thought it would be a good idea to give the three boys Nerf guns on a nasty, rainy day... so they were running around, shooting each other and whoever or whatever else was in the way. That wasn't my favorite part, but other than that, it was a good day. Didn't take any pictures on that day... Mama did though. I'm not on her computer though... :(
New Year's Eve was nice. I worked until about 5, met Blair at his work and we went over to his friend's place for a while. We watched Burn After Reading (really weird, but Brad Pitt is HILARIOUS!) and then left around 10 to avoid all the crazies. We got to his house, watched tv until the ball dropped in Times Square, played Yahtzee, then he played his Xbox while I played a game on his computer. I went home to bed around 1. It was a nice and quiet evening. January 1st was officially me and Blair's third anniversary. We spent it by going out to lunch at Crabtree with Leslie, Cecilia and Bart, exchanging one of his Christmas gifts (extra soft hoodie!)... and then I had to work... Yay! I worked until about 4:30 yesterday and had to hurry to Blair's house and change clothes so we could get to his family reunion at the Homestead. We got there just in time to order! Good thing because I was starving!! We had a good time. We went to church this morning. It was an awesome message by Dr. Marc Francis (whose birthday is today). We had lunch with half of Ridgecrest at Bojangle's (slight exaggeration) then went to the mall to waste some time. I needed a new shirt for work and he wanted to stare at new tvs. He keeps saying he's going to buy a new one, but everytime he picks one out, he backs off and says that he shouldn't spend the money, which is true. He's got the money saved up though. He just doesn't want to spend it. Vicious cycle. It's a good thing. I tell him that he should be looking at houses, not tvs. It seems as though he may actually be listening to me. Anywho, just wanted to update the blog for my lovely followers. I'm a horrible blogger, I know. I'll try to be better. New Year's resolution! Happy 2010!!!!

4 less teeth

I finally got my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. Three years after they started coming in. I blame Blair for that because they didn't start hurting until we started dating. Haha. He's really great though. He took me to my appointment, but had to leave before it was over to get to work on time. I should have asked if he could come in with me at least until I was well under the anesthesia (which didn't take long) because I started to freak out a little (until I was under). When I came to, which is a little fuzzy, I vaguely remember hyperventilating and then crying because I didn't know where I was or anyone around me. But then my mama came into the recovery room and I felt better! We went to pick up my prescription (and one for Viki, our sickly doggie), and some KFC cuz I wanted macaroni and cheese, mashed taters and a biscuit. Mama got some grilled chicken, which I ate a little much later. Kentucky Grilled Chicken is great! Who knew?
Well, anywho, I'm sitting here on the couch, catching up on all my DVRed movies and shows with an ice pack on my face and oxycodone killing the pain, which there isn't much of... because of the ice and oxycodone, I think. My parents are leaving here soon for the BarnBustin outdoor camping party thing that we used to go to all the time. My bestest friend will be coming over in a few hours. I haven't seen her in a few weeks and I miss her tons. And then, I get to see my wonderful boyfriend this evening after he gets done cutting grass and doing yardwork (and making me some money! Hahaha). He didn't come see me last night because he didn't get off work until 9:15, so he wouldn't have gotten out here until 11 or so, which is when i went to bed anyway. He's still wonderful though.
I wish Michael Buble could come and sing at my wedding.
Hahaha. That has nothing to do with my wisdom teeth except for the fact that I just finished watching The Wedding Date (cute movie) in which it ends with Michael crooning over the stereo for the bride and groom. On to My Fake Fiance. I DVRed ABC Family's wedding weekend. I love weddings! I'm a dork. And I think it's time for a nap.

~Jordan

Little of this, little of that, it's 1:30am... It happens!

I could (should) be sleeping, or, at the very least, reading for my class tomorrow. Alas, I am here. It's been two weeks since I've been able to get on here because I can't set up a wireless network here (without it costing a $40 installation fee and an extra 10 bucks on the bill each month, not to mention the headache of dealing with Time Warner again). I randomly decided to try a network tonight and WAH-LAH, here I am!

So, I'm getting back into the swing of things at school (finally). I got my placement for my internship. I am in a 7th grade social studies and language arts class! This semester, my focus is on social studies, but my OSTE (on-site teacher educator) informed me today when I met her that she teaches both subjects this year. I'm really excited about it!! I'll be starting next week, going all day on Mondays and Wednesdays until I get a job (anybody know of any part-time jobs in the Greensboro areas??), so I'll get my required 100 hours done quickly, and having plenty over for extra points on my final grade (YES!). My communications class isn't as scary as I thought it would be when I first looked at the syllabus, and my sociology class is awesome (minus the fact that it gets a little depressing at times--Family violence tends to do that). One interesting fact (and yet, probably not quite surprising for those of you who really know me) about the soc class... it's my first one on Tuesdays and Thursdays and out of the six classes we've had so far, I've been late to six of them. I just can't seem to get out of the house and on the road when I need to. Next week will be better! (I say that every week)

I want to plug in a shout out of sorts (even though I know he'll never read this) to my fabulous, pain in the butt, boyfriend who had a birthday this past Monday. He got to experience having a birthday on a holiday, which meant that the banks were closed and he didn't have to work... something I'm quite used to :) So we went to Southpoint and did a little shopping and then went back to the house for relaxing (and probably napping). I took him out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse where one of my good friends from Tripp's now works. Happy birthday Blair!! I love you! By the way, he's 27 now, but don't make fun of him for being old cuz you'll be there one day too. Ha!

And I have permission to post a few of the engagement pictures of Cecilia and Bart, my best friend/sister and her fiance. So here are some of the favorites. Keep in mind that this was my first time doing anything like this, so any suggestions, critiques, comments would be greatly appreciated!

They do both have really pretty eyes! This was Cecilia's idea.She wanted to do something cool with the ring... This is what I came up with.
Beautiful moment captured forever!
This is one of her favorites. Mine too, but I can't decide if I like it better in monochrome or color.
Hands...Feet...Another moment caught...It was a great experience. I can't wait to do it again. Oh, and I have to credit Chad and Christy for letting me borrow their excellent camera. I have a digital camera, but not one for (semi)professional(ish) work. So a big thanks to them and a huge thanks to Cecilia and Bart for being my very first clients!

Back to the Boro

School started today! I only had one class, but even that wasn't a whole class... It was a welcome to the education program, a little sparkling cider and a huge group picture (that I'm definitely getting a copy of whenever it comes out). We divided into our respective groups. There was only one group for middle school teachers, and our leader wasn't there, so we met with the dean of the program and he told us as much as he knew, which wasn't much. He did say that our internship won't start for two weeks, so unless our leader gives us something else to do during those times, I'll keep my happy butt at home... no doubt, doing school work and working part time. My work load this semester is going to be horrendous, and I'll probably cry many days out of the week, but I will survive because I've got a great team of supporters behind me!
So, it's great to be back. Things are much different from the past four years... namely, my bestest friend isn't here with me. It's weird, but she's doing awesome things in her life. And I'll adjust to the changes... I learned from a recent trip to Slovakia how to be flexible!!
I wish I had a picture of me at school or looking somewhat scholarly... but I do not. So I stole one from the school's website of my favorite place on campus, the Elliot University Center.
(that's where the food court is...) hahaha

Hunter's Hope Medical and Family Symposium 2009

I just got back from the annual symposium that I've gone to since 11th grade with my best friend, Cecilia.

Back story: Cecilia's little brother, David Aaron, died in 1999 from a leukodystrophy called Krabbe (crab-A) Disease. It is an inherited neurodegenerative lysosomal enzyme disorder affecting the central and peripheral nervous systems. For more details about the disease, you can visit www.huntershope.org. They explain it way better than I can. Jim Kelly, former Buffalo Bill quarterback and Hall of Famer, and his wife, Jill, also had a child with the disease. Named for their son, Hunter, they started the Hunter's Hope organization to reach out to families to give them support and love, to doctors to encourage research and to the public to spread awareness. So, 12 years ago, they decided to bring everyone together for a symposium; to let the families meet other families, talk about their experiences and encourage each other, and to let the families and doctors all get to together to talk about the developments in Universal New Born Screening, and to just learn more about the medical side of leukodystrophies. So there's that.
Cecilia invited me to go with her so she wouldn't be lonely. I had been introduced to the world of Krabbe soon after we solidified our best friend status in 8th grade, so I already knew a little about it and had met a few families who had come into Durham for appointments at Duke. The kids dug a hole in my heart that has only grown since then.
The symposium is one of the ways that I have been able to get involved and lend my helping hand. For the past few years, Cecilia and I have collaborated and put together a slideshow of all the kids for the families to see. It's one simple way to remind everyone what they are there for. The parents, grandparents, and friends always appreciate it, though we can't rightly take credit for it. This year, one of the fathers asked us who did the most work on the project and Cecilia appropriately answered, "The kids." Because, again, they are who the symposium is all about. We just put pictures and names and dates and music together. I'm not sure if I would be able to post the slideshow on here, so if not, I'll add a link to google videos, where it will be posted shortly. I will, however, add some of the pictures that I took this past week.
This is our mandatory beginning-of-the-trip picture!

Here are the doctors in their meeting...Here they are, paying attention and taking notes.
The fabulous fireplace in the main lodge.
And one of the dining rooms...

Pretty flowers in the Butterfly Garden (but I never saw a butterfly...)


They have these swings placed all along the trails. On the other side of the hill is a beautiful view of the lake...
...which kind of looks like this.

The family room that Cecilia and I put together
The pictures are a little dark, but the Christmas lights wouldn't have the same effect the the overhead lights on...The 2009 Hunter's Hope bear, Beautiful and Baby Bella, sticking out of Cecilia's bagTwo super cute twins, sisters of a Krabbe boy who was unable to attend due to a bout of pneumonia.We had face painting... Two of the boys, John and Mikey, got green lizards on their faces.On Saturday, after families and friends wrote messages on the balloons for the kids who have gone before us, we released them and prayed that they reach them in Heaven.After the balloon release, we began our walk.Madison being pushed by her grandmother and followed by her mom.Dalton being helped by his step-dad and followed by his mom.Chance with his mom and grandmother.Sandrine being pushed by her mom.
Laura being helped by her dad, followed by her mom and sister.Laura coming down the finish line.Another view of the beautiful lake and the Lakeside Pavilion where we ate lunch and dinner.Villa de Cecilia e Jordan (I have no idea what language that is, or if it's even a language... it just sounds cool... I think)
It was a good week, indeed!