I've moved

...my blog. I no longer use the email address connected with this blog so check out my new blog here or type in http://enduringtherace.blogspot.com/.

Curse you, traffic cameras!

I made it longer than I anticipated with all of the traffic cameras in New Orleans. I thought I knew all of the cameras and could avoid a ticket but I guess not. The camera that got me is labeled as a red light camera but apparently is a speed camera also. I am going to talk to a lawyer friend of mine to see about getting out of it since it isn't labeled as a speed camera. One judge in town ruled on October 1st that the cameras are against the city's charter and that tickets issued after then would be null and void.  If I don't get out of it, I have to pay $110. Yuck.

wAUnderful weekend

Friday I traveled to Auburn with a few friends and met up with an old roomie, Min Kyung. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking and just hanging out then got up bright and early for tailgating Saturday. My dad met me in Auburn Saturday and the two of us got to go into the game together. It was nice getting to spend time just me and my daddy. PLUS...The game was amazing! War CAM Eagle! 

Toomer's Corner the morning after the game. It is the closest thing we get to seeing snow in Auburn--everything is covered in a white blanket of toilet paper. What a beautiful sight!

Sunday Min Kyung and I met up with one of my closest friends and our former roomie, Casey. It happened to be her one year wedding anniversary and her husband so graciously shared their time with me. We went to lunch then found an old covered bridge that we climbed down under and were able to enjoy a peaceful afternoon while catching up. It was so refreshing to get to talk with Casey and get an update on her life. I was encouraged to hear how God is working in her marriage and life in general. 


I have a tendency to idealize the next steps in life as if they are going to be the end to all of my struggles. Like "if I can just finish school and get a job, I won't be stressed anymore" or "if I could just get married, I won't be discontent with my life anymore". I don't always think like this but sometimes I need reminders that there are always going to be struggles in my life until the day that Christ returns. Talking with Casey reminded me of this. I love that I have wonderful friends who I can share my struggles with and who will share their struggles with me. I just wish we didn't live so far away!

Min Kyung

Casey

Bless you

To those of you who still check my blog for updates despite my inconsistency of blogging, bless you. I am in my final semester of graduate school and it has been a typical busy semester. My classes are enjoyable but I am so tired of being in school. The typical day for me consists of either babysitting or being in the office and always reading something for class (thus the picture below).

Sarah and I went to a local, old fashioned movie theater to see the premier of Cairo Time and got to sit in the front row beforehand to listen to Patricia Clarkson do a Q&A about the movie.

My family and I drove to Parris Island, SC to pick up Jordan from boot camp. I can't believe he is a Marine! I am so proud of him for accomplishing his goal. The picture below is of the motivational run at the crack of dawn. It was an emotional day as we were trying to pick his face out of the group and finally got to see him.

After we picked up Jordan we went to the Auburn-South Carolina game. War Eagle!

Jordan then came to visit me in New Orleans. We mostly played it low key-eating good food and going to the zoo. Jordan did manage to get phase 1 of his back tattoo plan done while he was in town. 

Jordan leaves for infantry training a week from today. He will be there (North Carolina) for about a month then go to 29 Palms, California for his specific job training for a year. Please keep him in your prayers!

Internet-less

We have now been without internet for TWO WHOLE WEEKS and I am barely surviving. I don't think I could do it without my smartphone though. It makes a difference still being able to get email and do other small things on my phone. Saturday we are getting internet AND cable, just in time for football season. Hooray!!! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE football season and am excited that I can now enjoy NFL and SEC football. It was amazing experiencing all the hype of the Saints last season. The championship parade was bigger than the mardi gras parades and there is a season opener parade scheduled for September 9th. I am definitely going to have to watch the parade and concert then run to a bar so I can keep track of the Auburn game and the Saints game. I can't wait!!!

Why I LOVE my new home!

1. We all have our own rooms (love you Sarah but I know you're glad about this too)
2. I no longer have to walk through Kristina's room to get to mine.
3. I can get up and pee in the middle of the night without waking up Kristina meaning I can drink all the water I want before bedtime.
4. Sarah has studio space
5. We have a private front porch
6. We are located 5 blocks from the park and 1 block from the levy bike path/river
7. We have central heat and air!!!!
8. We have a washer and dryer!
9. No more flies infesting our trash (this was seriously uncontrollable at our last house)
10. New windows!!
11. We have 2.5 bathrooms (in case all 3 of us have to pee at the same time. haha)
12. No more leaking showers and mold in the bathroom
13. Several friends live on the same street as us

I think of new reasons every day. I LOVE IT!!

Excessive heat warning

86°F

Feels Like: 101°

Details:

Oppressive humidity

Well said weather.com. I knew it felt freaking miserable on my run this morning. Yay for 101 degree weather at 7am.

sibling rivalries

I am so glad that I was able to come home for my mom's 50th birthday this weekend, but more about that later. It is always good to spend time with my siblings. However, sometimes it is hard for me to relate to them as they struggle with the frustrations of living with each other. They are constantly fighting, making snide remarks, or arguing. They have no patience with each other and show no grace to each other. It breaks my heart.
I guess it is so hard for me to see them act like this because I remember when I acted the same way with Rachael. After the accident I had a whole new perspective on what was important (not that I am perfect in my interactions with others now) and I just want them to enjoy being with each other. I know their behaviors are a normal part of growing up but I HATE it. I've tried communicating this to them but they don't seem to listen.

Falling into pieces

Today has been exhausting emotionally. I have been having a really hard time dealing with Jordan leaving and I was surprised that the rest of my siblings have too. I expected Katrina and Annika to cry because they are emotional like me but when Sarah and Corey started crying too, that was the end of any composure I had managed to maintain up to that point.
The entire drive back to New Orleans was like a series of emotional waves. I would be overwhelmed by emotions then just when I thought I had overcome them, another wave would hit. It has been really difficult to pick apart the reasons to why this has been emotionally trying but here is what I have so far:
1) A big part of it is that no other sibling has moved since I moved to college and now when I go home we won't all be together anymore. I'm worried that we won't all be together again (even though I know this isn't true, it won't be the same).
2) I think a lot of this has to do with losing Rachael and now that I am feeling like I am losing Jordan too, the old feelings of loss have resurfaced even though it is not the same situation.
3) Another reason is my lack of faith. I think that Jordan's time at boot camp is a critical point in his relationship with God and that this will either make him or break him. I am not fully trusting that God will use boot camp to draw Jordan to Him.
I know there is more lurking around inside me but I am too exhausted to probe any deeper. Off to bed and praying for deep, dreamless sleep...

Job update

So I had posted a while back about starting the job search and just wanted to provide you all with an update on how that is going. I applied to several schools and had two official interviews--one with a charter school and one with a catholic school. The charter school was a bust but I got a job offer from the catholic school. The salary that they offered me was too small for me to live off of so I told them what I would need and they said they could not meet my offer.
The school systems here are so different than what I was used to in Auburn. Here you have the public schools, recovery district schools, charter schools, private schools, and catholic schools. The public schools are unstable because of state budgets being cut. The recovery district is a mess. The charter schools are like boot camp for teachers and students--long hours, extremely rigid rules, extended school year, etc. And the catholic schools can't pay enough for me to live off of.
So, after going through this process I have decided to take the Graduate Assistant position at UNO for another semester. I will graduate in December and apply to work for Early Steps which is what I wanted to do anyways. My only hesitation about taking this position was that I will be an independent service provider working for the state so I will not have any benefits (health insurance, retirement, etc) but I will get paid $60/hour and I can decide how many hours/cases I want to work.

PG-13

This week has been soooo looong....I have learned some interesting things but I am past the point of exhaustion. Yesterday I was tested on putting in a catheter, feeding through a g-tube, and cleaning a trach. As I'm typing this, I am supposed to be listening to the powerpoint presentation on toileting skills. 

Sorry about the picture but I just had to share it after stumbling across it in one of our many handouts. Why would I ever need to see a sketch of an individual relieving themselves through a catheter?? 

couch to 5k

It's official! I'm training to run a 5K! No the world is not coming to an end. My mom just suggested that I start doing a program called "From Couch to 5K" so we started training when I went home to visit. I am in week 6 of 10 in the training program. It has been going well so far but I am starting to lose motivation now. This is partly due to exhaustion from my one week classes but also because this past week and a half I have been doing it on my own in the UNO gym. I am far more motivated to continue the training program when someone does it with me. So Sarah, if you're reading this, get ready because we are going to be running either in the mornings or afternoons because I need someone to kick my butt when I can't do it myself.

Sad, BP. Just sad.

Livin' on Prayer

I made it through my first one week class slightly exhausted. My routine has been getting up at 6:20, driving to the campus gym to workout, showering, then heading to class until 5pm every day. I've been making myself go to bed by 10pm so I am getting plenty of sleep but I am still slightly exhausted.
Today I was able to go yard sale shopping which is one of my favorite things to do. I love finding awesome deals  on fun things! The rest of my day will be spent watching the US kick England's butt in soccer, napping, then babysitting. I just hope I can make it through my class next week then my summer will be a breeze.

Today marks the nine year anniversary of Rachael going to be with Jesus. I have so many emotions running through me right now--jealousy, sadness, joy, compassion.
I'm jealous that Rachael gets to experience the joys of heaven and the splendor of God's presence. The sadness is self-explanatory. The joy is because Katrina and I have become closer and have been able to share more with each other spiritually and emotionally. Tonight we drove out to the grave side and sat talking about how adjusting over the years has been and how it has changed our lives.
The compassion is for the driver who hit our car. I can't imagine how this has impacted his life and I wonder how often he thinks about us. So often, I want to contact him to make sure he knows that I have forgiven him and to share God's grace with him. I don't know anything about this man other than his name but I hope that if he wasn't a Christian before the accident, that God used the situation to draw him to Himself.

Today's program is made possible by....

Rainboots! My roomie and I woke this morning to a crazy storm with intense lightning and monsoon type showers. I looked outside after about 30 minutes into the storm and saw that our cars were about to be flooded so I ran to grab our keys (my roomie was showering so I said I would move both of them). I had to move them 4 blocks to an empty lot then trudge back through the river that was once our streets. 

Church was cancelled because you couldn't get around unless you had an air boat. I was praying the entire time that I was moving our cars that I would make it. If we had waited any longer, our cars would have been ruined.

It's a blur but this is me conquering the monsoon. I was too wet and cold to let my roommate try to get a clear picture.

In front of my house:

Then to add insult to injury, I was attacked by one of those damn stinging caterpillars that live in the tree in front of our house. Ugh! I'm taking benadryl and curling up in bed with a book. Let me know when the sun comes out again.

Christmas In May

Thanks Casey for my fabulous Christmas gift! It only took what, like 3 1/2 years to finish? Haha! I love it!

More Bugs! Eek!

So, if anyone knows me they know that I am not an outdoorsy kinda girl. I prefer my environment to be air conditioned and bug free (unless I am laying on the beech reading a book--then I'll tolerate the heat and bugs).

Last night my friend Sarah and I ventured to a nearby park that overlooks the Mississippi river to hang out and watch the sun set. The swarms of what I thought were flying ants had other plans and chased us back to the car. This morning I checked facebook and saw that my pastor had posted a note about termite swarms in New Orleans. Apparently they come out in swarms between 7 and 9pm in order to mate. They are harmless but very annoying and have no respect for your personal space. How rude!

A new beginning, a new mayor

My favorite part of current Mayor, Mitch Landrieu's speech: "The first step is to declare that we are no longer recovering no longer rebuilding. Now we are creating. Let's stop thinking about rebuilding the city we were and start dreaming about the city we want to become. The world deserves a better New Orleans.People of New Orleans hear this - today is a new day, today is a new time."

I can't wait to see what the future holds for New Orleans!

Bug Season

It is official! The bugs have invaded New Orleans! I walked out the door this morning to a swarm of pesky mosquitoes chasing me and stinging caterpillars dive bombing from the trees. Now, I have experience with mosquitoes (can we say 100% deet...) but these caterpillars are another story. Apparently they invade every year too. No lie---we have hundreds maybe as much as 1,000 of these stinging caterpillars in the tree in front of my house. They have also found their way onto our cars, porch, and fence. I make a mad dash to my car whenever I step out my front door. Yikes!