Rae-inspired Blog

I love to read Rae Francis' blogs. She always makes me smile. This is why I also love to talk to her, travel with her and just know her in general. She is an wonderful girl growing into an amazing woman. I know that Marc and Joan are so proud of her! She is one of the people I am thankful for and this is my note to her (if you listened to Shay on Sunday, you know what I'm talking about). Thanks, Rae, for being a great example of what it looks like to truly follow God and for always smiling. It's infectious and I can't help but to smile when I see you. :)Rae's blogs often consist of lists of things she loves or quick "snippets" of her thoughts on a subject (or many subjects) or something along those lines. She usually includes fantastic photos of whatever she's talking about. But the thing I love most about her blog is that it's always positive. When I read it, I can really hear her saying these things in her upbeat and happy voice. And they always give me something to think about, whether it's a Bible verse or how to get more involved with my photography or that I should be more appreciative of what I have.

This last point is what I plan on doing here today. The last few blogs I've posted have been long ramblings about all the things I have to do and how it's stressing me out. Rae reminds me that I have so much to be grateful and thankful for. So this is my list:

I'm thankful for... Rae Francis and her infectious positivity and understated encouragements!

I'm thankful for... GOD! That He has a plan for me and

my life (something that I don't have to sit down on Sunday evenings to do myself). That He is patient with me and takes me back every time. That He loves me so much that He would send His one and only son to die for me. That He knows everything about me; every hair on my head (I often think of this and just cannot wrap my head - or hair - around it. I mean, I don't even know every hair on my head!!). That He hears me and answers my prayers (in His way, in His time). That He is here, no matter what, and He will always be here. Who else can say that?

I'm thankful for... the internet and its endless resources when I'm tired of thinking for myself.

I'm thankful for... my wonderful parents. They are supportive and caring and want the best for me. They love me for me, even when I'm being a pain. They remind me who I am whenever I forget. I'm getting married this summer (in less than 60 days!!) and I'm taking that boy's last name, but I will forever be a Wilson, and I couldn't be any more proud of that!

This is my 2nd favorite picture of me and my daddy. The first favorite is from when I was a wee little tot and I don't have it on my computer. :(

Most pictures I have with my mama now usually include microphones! She sings pretty! :)

I'm thankful for... Casting Crowns. My absolute favorite band. I don't think they've come out with a song that I don't love. Ironically, I still don't have any of their CDs. Weird!

I'm thankful for... K-Love for playing Casting Crowns when I need it! (and other great songs that remind me of who God is and what He's done for us)

I'm thankful for... my UNCG supervisor. If you read my last blog or have talked to me recently about my student teaching, you know that I've been struggling in it. Let me just tell you, if it weren't for my supervisor, I can promise you that I wouldn't still be a student teacher. I can't imagine what I'd be doing, but I know it wouldn't be this. He has faith in me and lets me (and everyone else) know it. He won't let me forget that he knows I can do this. He also doesn't accept my crap when I try to slack off. He knows when I'm doing my best and will only accept that. Great man, he is!

I'm thankful for... teacher workdays! Tomorrow is one. Our first break in a LONG time. We had a half day a while ago, but it was so long ago that I don't even know when it was. I'm still gonna try to get there when I usually do (around 8) because my daddy will be in town and I plan on having lunch with him. :)

I'm thankful for... not getting a parking ticket when I parked outside my dorm all last week. I hope I didn't just jinx myself because I fully intend on parking out there this week, as long as there is a parking spot.

I'm thankful for... Karla not dying in a car accident last week. She's my best friend, my soul sister. She's in New York right now, planning on being home mid-April. If I could drive up there right now and bring her home, I absolutely would!! I miss her and am so grateful that she wasn't hurt anymore than she was in the accident.

I'm thankful for... cheeseburgers. It's dinner time!

This is just INSANITY!

There are many things that can be placed into the "insanity" category for me.

• First and foremost, how long it's been since I've posted a blog. I'm terrible, I know. So if anyone still reads this, I so appreciate it! :)
• Then, there's the fact that it's March 24. March. 24. Less than two months away from May 21. That would be my wedding day! I'm very excited, but beginning to feel the stress coming. I am naturally a procrastinator. Wedding planning isn't really the time you want to be a procrastinator. We only have a few things left to do, but they're pretty BIG things to take care of, that probably should have been done by now. They will get done. They HAVE to!
• It's also March 24. Closer to April 15, which is technically the last day of my student teaching. Yay! I could devote an entire blog about on this subject. I'll keep it confined to a paragraph... or, really, a sentence (which may turn into a string of seemingly unrelated words that only fit together in the context of my head). Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Frustrated and excited and love the kids, even though they are weird and crazy, feel stifled, no confidence, ready for my own class, stressful, really enjoy the good days, like to freak the kids out by smiling at weird times or dancing. There is a chance that I may miss some of them right after I leave because many of them are funny and incredibly smart and downright cool kids. There aren't any that I genuinely cannot stand to be around, which is good. I will be happy to not have the part-time responsibility for them anymore. That sounds weird, but I am just ready for my own class and my own kids. That will suffice for this topic.
• I could not be anymore frustrated with the house hunt situation Blair and I are in. We find something we like and something always happens. I know that if it's meant to be, it will be. I understand that. That's how I got him. :) I'm not frustrated with losing any particular house... I'm frustrated with searching and looking and clicking and being in Greensboro while trying to find a home in Durham.
• There are 75 gazillion things that I'm supposed to be thinking of while I'm teaching. Content, management, motivation, remediation, rigor, extension, missing work, bathroom breaks, discipline cards, phone calls to parents, documentation, meetings, and so many more. There are 239 million things to think of when I leave school. Grading, house search, what shoes for the bridesmaids, how are we going to set up the stage for the ceremony, graduation announcements, breathe, flowers, cake, bridal shower and bachelorette party, when is Karla (MOH) coming home, am I going to see my parents this weekend, when will I see Blair, how am I going to afford gas this week, babysitting, eat dinner, what to pack for lunch, plans for tomorrow... I NEED A SPRING BREAK!!! Guess when Guilford County's spring break starts? April 20th. After I'm done teaching. How did I ever think I could get all this stuff planned and done and taken care of and paid for when I'm supposed to be teaching for 15 straight weeks with maybe two days off??
• Are you there God? It's me, Jordan. I've been living in the Book of James since Metamorphosis. I don't remember how I stumbled upon it, but I decided Saturday morning of that weekend that I would read through James. Then, I realized why I was reading it. I'm living it.

Jordan, trials and tribulations test your faith. Tests of faith build perseverance. Ask for wisdom without doubt and I will provide it. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. Jordan, there is a house for you. You will survive student teaching. Delegate wedding work. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger (frustration). Worry and frustration occur when you aren't trusting in Me, when you aren't praying and fully giving these things to Me. Surrender, baby girl. Surrender to Me! (Remember, God calls me "baby girl" when He speaks to me)

• If you aren't exhausted reading this by now, you will be with this last point. I've also decided to work the 60 day INSANITY program, since my wedding is in less than 60 days. I want to be around where I was when I bought my dress (after a summer of working out - Insanity and Zumba pretty consistently - and 2 weeks in Slovakia, running around, sweating and a more healthy appetite - like, STOP eating when I'm FULL!). I'm not that far from my goal, so that makes me happy. But the workout certainly lives up to its name. I'm not actually doing it everyday yet. I've done it twice this week, Monday and yesterday. Tonight, I went to Zumba at the Rec Center, so I'm still working out, but I kinda have to work my body up to full time INSANITY again.

I was going to say more things, but my brain is fried and my eyes are tired. I guess the point of this blog was to say, "Sorry for not blogging for a while. This is what's going on. PLEASE pray for my sanity and the 37 ka-jillion things that I have to get done/think about every day and my perseverance and motivation to keep working out because I know I feel so much better when my body is in shape!" K thanks. I love you, whoever is reading this!! :)

Once again...

I find myself here, catching up after long break... while there is something else I should be doing. But there is a reason I'm here. I was looking through some teacher blogs to do some research and I just found myself here! See. I am logical at times! So here's the quick run down on my update.I'm almost done with undergrad classes!! I'm so ready to be done with papers and quizzes and (required) blogs and homework and (required) reading and so forth and so on. I'm doing pretty well... averaging Bs, I'd say. I should be getting an A in one of those classes, but I haven't been putting forth my full potential. Definitely passing, so I'm all good.

I went on another wonderful trip to Slovakia this past summer. It was an entirely different experience from last year, but I loved it for sure!

I discovered that I suck at virtually every sport known to man but I had so much fun playing with all the kids anyway. Staying in the hotel in Bratislava with no air conditioning was preparing me for living in my no a/c dorm this year. And getting to know our missionary family, the Holloways, was an added blessing! I remember the last thing Sonya said to me before we left. She whispered in my ear as I hugged her, "Go, make a difference. And stop crying!" I probably didn't stop crying until we got on the plane. I was happy to come home, don't g

et me wrong. But there's definitely a large piece of my heart still in Slovakia. I hope to go back sooooon!!

I came home, had some good Chik-fil-A and the next day, Blair proposed to me! Oh, and I said yes!! Actually, after a few seconds of stunned silence, I said, "Yeah!" I had to convince myself that it was actually happening!

Ummm.... OH! I was all worried about living in a dorm (the one with no a/c) with a roommate that I didn't know. Turns out, she's great! Erin is an elementary ed major, so we already have a lot in common there. She's really laid back and chill. We've never had an argument, had a couple of bug scares (which is kinda funny when she screams), eat together a lot, and laugh a WHOLE LOT!!

Well, I guess that's it for now. I hope to update again soon, with more pictures. :) Off to schoolwork I go!

This is just ridiculous

I have to rant for a bit... and it's 4 in the morning and there's no one I can talk to and get all this out, so here's a bit of entertainment for my readers...

I'm sooooo ready to be out of college. Again, I'll say that it's 4 AM. There's only one reason I'm ever up at 4 in the morning: I haven't gone to bed yet. And further, now in my "grown up" Christian life, there's only one reason I haven't gone to bed yet at 4 AM: School work... more specifically, usually writing a paper (although I do admit that there are those nights when I get on a TV show kick where I'll watch episode after episode of something - a few summers ago, it was Grey's Anatomy... earlier this semester, it was ABC Family's Greek).

Why, oh why, do I do this to myself? I'm been working on this paper since 11:15PM. It's due at 9:30AM. I finished 90% of the reading around 6:30 yesterday and I wrote a ROCKIN outline to make the paper-writing process much smoother. And yet, here I am, five hours after starting that process, just finishing the third page (required length is 8-10 pages including bibliography). If I wasn't so ADD, I'm pretty sure I could have knocked it out in about two hours. Alas, I've been on Facebook twice now... once, I clicked on Games, thinking that it would be a good idea to play a game of whatever Facebook games are. My computer, however, really didn't agree as it did not even try to load the page. FINE! I went and got my iPod and played solitaire, or attempted, rather. You'd think that a game, in which you are the only player, you're pretty guaranteed to win. Not so much, in my case.

Which brings me here. I haven't posted anything since February, and that was a sad one. Oh. Mama and Daddy got a new dog, by the way. Kinda weirds me out because they got the same exact kind of dog that Viki was. Miniature Eskimo Spitz. Her name is Cotton and she likes to attack me. Seriously. Her teeth put a dent in my fingernail. She growls and runs after me, barking. Read that sentence again. She runs after me. As in, I'm walking back to my room, minding my own happy business, not being threatening in any kind of way, and she runs up on me, barking and snapping those teeth. Scares the ever living out of me! Every time. She likes to attack me.

Totally unrelated (which I think is my new favorite phrase- I use it ALL the time... you know how random I can be), I'm making progress on lowering my BMI and weight. My goal is to be at a healthy BMI, around 22.8 something or other. I have 6 pounds to go! Having a definite date set for my goal is incredibly helpful. My bestest friend, Cecilia, is marrying her best friend on June 26th, just under two months from now, and I am her Maid of Honor, naturally. She picked out a beautiful dress for me and I ordered it and received it and tried it on and ... well, decided that I could stand to shed a few pounds. Not many, but just enough to fit into the dress comfortably. It was a little more snug than I would prefer when I got it. I have not tried it on again since then. Maybe I'll do that this weekend.

Man, I don't want to do this paper. BORING!!!

Okay, I'm done ranting about school and myself. I hope you at least got a chuckle out of reading this. If not, check out some of these pictures I took for one of my projects (Culture of a WiiMaster) :)
Bowling. My 2nd favorite (after tennis).
Doing some yoga to stretch and strengthen my muscles. Dance pose is still kinda new to me.
Skateboarding. I realized that I make a lot of funny faces when I'm Wii-ing. No one has ever told me this because no one has ever joined me since I got my own Wii for Christmas. :(
This is totally my favorite picture from this day! I was doing the flying chicken target game thing. Sooooo much fun! I bet you laughed at this picture. It's okay. I laughed too!

It is now 4:36AM.
Must. Finish. Paper.

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!!!!