d.c.

Last week, I flew into Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. The main reason for going was so that I could get out of Texas and see my good friend Allison. She has lived out there for most of the past 5 years and I'd never come out for a visit. So, I visited. Allison is one of my absolute favorite people in the world. I remember seeing her in our Humanities class during the very first week of college. I thought, "I would like to be her friend". And, we've been good friends for the last 9 years. We laughed a lot last week and I just had a blast hanging out with her.

The last time I was in our nation's capital was in 1992. That was before I developed a love of history so I didn't appreciate all of the sites. I won't bore you with the details of every monument I saw, every famous tombstone that I read at Arlington Cemetery, or every artifact I examined at the various Smithsonians. But, my favorite part was an exhibit at the National Archives that was about the education of our Presidents. They had reproductions of essays written, reports cards issued, and pictures of them as school boys. It was so awesome that I went twice!

Here are some random factoids that I learned:

--John Wilkes Booth was the 9th out of 10 children who were all illegitimate. He was also only 26 when he assassinated Lincoln. Right before he did the deed he drank a whiskey and water at the bar next to Ford's Theater for some 'liquid courage'.

--Robert E. Lee had 7 children who all lived to adulthood. Only 2 of those kids ever got married, so he has very few direct descendants.

--The Metro system is very clean.

--There aren't Super Targets in Virginia. How do they survive without it there!?!?!

--The Wright Brothers started out in the Printing business.

So, there is much more but those were interesting to me (:

Here are a few pictures.

Allison and me at Cantina Marina
Newlywed and new D.C. resident,Mindy, and me
A sobering picture from Arlington Cemetery
the Eternal Flame and Jackie O's gravesite
View from Robert E. Lee's Home. (he is my favorite person in US History)
Hi George!!
In front of the Nat. Archives. It says, "The Past is Prologue"

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I don't know if anyone else remembers this book from their childhood, but I feel like it paralleled the events of my Monday.
This morning, I was actually kind of excited about going to school. This first week is easy. Just a bunch of inservice stuff and no kiddos. So I hop in the car and head on over to Creek Valley MS. The drive was great. I had my worship music blasting and I was pumped about this day. Just as I turn onto Creek Valley Blvd. my car stopped. It just stopped. So, in a panic, I turn the key and it starts back up. Sadly, the power steering went out but I was able to coast to the school which was about a half mile away. At lunch I found out that the work needed to be done would cost about $861. Wow. That's a lot of money to put into a car that isn't even worth that. After all, the Escort is about 9 years old. But after talking it through with my Dad, we decided that this was the best decision until I really had time to do research and find a new car. This was not how I had planned on spending the money so I burst into tears at the shock of it all. But I knew it would be okay.

Later on in the afternoon, I tripped and ripped part of my favorite little black dress sandals. I was sad, but it seemed like no big deal compared to the car.

When I got home, I realized the garbage disposal wasn't working. I called my dad again, and he gave me some instructions on resetting it. Well, it didn't start to work so we have declared it broken. Last time I checked, plumbers don't work for free.

Dealing with all of this stuff just overwhelms me and makes me long for someone who is here with me to alleviate the stress and share the burdens. But for now, it's all on me.

So that is pretty much how my day went.

But.......

There are some good things about today.
1. My car died at school just miles from my house and not on my road trip to Iowa.
2. I have a friend/coworker who lives just 2 miles from me and gave me a ride home from school and is taking me to school tomorrow
3. I have a friend, Andrea, from my homegroup that lives about a mile from me and gave me a ride to and from homegroup.
4. The disposal thing is covered under my home warranty so it won't cost too much to fix.
5. Those shoes hurt my feet anyway and weren't practical for teaching.
6. My Dad is really always there for me when I need him. So much so that I tear up when I think about how selfless he is in his love for me.
7. I have an amazing church and girls in my homegroup. God has used both to draw me to himself and show me more about who he is.

Today was just one of those days. It will not go down in the books as my favorite day of life. But the Lord really met all of my needs for the day. So thanks to all who helped me get through today and so graciously offered to help me out. And thank you, Jesus, for reminding me that I don't have to go it alone.

For Rebekah...

In celebration of #4 of my "8 random things" post, I thought you would get a kick out of this.
My whole family would save these out of magazines for me. I think I had at least 4 of them posted in various locations. I was actually forced to remove this from inside of my locker in high school. So scandalous!!

i'm a lame blogger

Well, there hasn't been anything too exciting happening in my life lately. That's not a bad thing...just doesn't make for interesting blogging.
Here's a brief update of life as I know it: (and I don't know why it's doing that weird indenting thing--sorry!)

I am getting a new roommate...Claire is coming back to Dallas and I am so excited!!!

Tomorrow I am leaving for a trip to D.C. to see my friend Allison

Tomorrow also marks the beginning of the 30-days-until-my-28th-birthday sugar fast.
Prayers are needed for this one--ha. Anyway, I will celebrate the end of the 30
days by feasting on birthday cake or something yummy.

I am starting to train for the Dallas White Rock Half again with the hope of
running it under 2 hrs. I want to do another full but that really becomes a
full-time job and I can't do that right now.

I am recently began studying Ephesians, reading "Get Out of that Pit" by Beth Moore, and "The Ragamuffin Gospel". Oh, Rich Mullins....

School starts next Monday, Aug. 20th. The kids come the 27th. I am ready to be
back in a routine so this is actually a good thing.

Marco had to get a vaccine the other day. While there, the vet told that I needed
to brush Marco's teeth daily. Are you kidding me?!?!?!

I got a major sunburn while laying out with my new friend, Hillary. It was great
fun, though, even though I can't stand to have anything touching me at the moment.

And this is a public service announcement: Never wear a strapless top to get your
driver's license picture taken. Just don't. Trust me.


That's all for now. If you are reading this, I hope you have a great week!!!

8 bits of randomness

I was tagged by my friend Hollie to give 8 random facts/habits about myself.

The Rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (**if you’re a non-blogger, you can email them!)
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My eight random facts and/or habits:

1. I am deathly afraid of birds and clowns.

2. At just about every meal in the cafeteria in college, I would always grab a bagel and a shmear of cream cheese. However, I would peel the bagel and eat only the crust. Weird.

3. I have a scar on my knee from kneeling on my bedroom floor and landing on a bottle of nail polish. The glass got lodged into my skin, I missed the state track meet due to the 5 stitches that were right on the top of my knee, and my mom was completely unsympathetic because this all wouldn't have happened if my room was clean.

4. I had a major crush on tennis player, Pete Sampras. This started in 7th grade and continued through my freshman year of college. I would hang his pictures in my locker at school. I also wrote two letters to him sharing about Jesus. Sadly, he married that girl from "The Wedding Planner" and I've moved on to another unattainable crush. ha

5. I've had eczema since I was 8 years old. Attractive, huh?

6. I played soccer for ten years and miss it dearly.

7. I graduated from college with a 4.0 . Now, I wish that I would have had more fun, relaxed a little bit and landed around a 3.5-3.7. I was obsessed with maintaining it because once you made a 'B', you could never get back to 4.0. You could only get as close as 3.999999....

8. I have always loved cooking shows. Sometimes I cook and pretend that I'm on TV and have a running commentary about the ingredients, what I'm doing with the recipe, etc.


Um...I don't really have anyone to tag since Hollie got them all. Maybe Mindy???