I received word yesterday that Mickey's (my step-mom) mom was dying. I knew she hadn't been doing to well but hearing the enevitable was like taking a dagger to the heart. Mrs. Seaton came into my life 12 years ago. When my dad introduced us to Mickey and said they were going to get married, the Seaton family took us in as their own. Leah was barely a year old when dad and Mickey were married. Mr. and Mrs. Seaton lived just a few miles from dad and Mick so we saw them often. Anytime we had a get together at dad's they would come over. The Seaton's fell in love with Leah and that warmed my heart. Mrs. Seaton was always very kind and loving towards me as well.
A few years later she had a sudden stroke that affected her speach. She could no longer talk. Even through that I knew she still cared about me when I was around her. I could see the saddness in her eyes to not be able to communicate normally.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Job Interview
This past Monday I went on a job interview with Stephen F. Austin University and TEA. Going into the interview I felt pretty good, wasn't nervous. Walked into the interview and the nerves hit. Was interviewed by 4 different people at the same time. Haven't heard anything about the job yet, still waiting to hear from them. I'm anxious to know though! This could potentially change my life!
Friday, March 18, 2011
oh this blog...
is an ever growing process. Looking back over past posts, I noticed a common denominator....I only post during breaks. What's up with that??? Like the title of this blog states, it's a juggling act and this too falls into that act. The act I should say of writing and keeping up with this blog. I love to write. I love to blog but can't seem to do that and run this hectic life during the same time. So it seems that I will only blog during my down times. This is one of those down times...spring break 2011. Been a rather lazy week. Kids went with Mike's mom on a trip to Sea World this week leaving the two of us at home. Mike and I took a little road trip to a potential new job possibility that I am rather excited about. I will update more on that later as I don't even have an interview yet! But I hope to soon. I welcome the potential job change with great excitement right now. The change would require us to move though, that I'm not to fond of the idea right now. Don't get me wrong, I love the change of scenery and all that brings but with this move I will be bringing 3 kids along. In the past, moving wasn't that impossible because I didn't have a lot of little people to think about. Now I do. Change of schools, picking the right place to live and the best schools for them, making new friends, finding a new church home, on and on.
I'm not a big fan of change but this change would be good for my soul. This opportunity came out of no where. I wasn't looking for a change and actually was quiet content right where I was at. I was beginning to settle into my life. I spent two years in grad school and then had to spend a year coming down from the stress of juggling those activities. Long story short, I felt lost in this process...lost in the sense that I didn't know where my life was going or what I was suppose to do with it.
Through this process, I kept getting this sense of "be still" and "wait". Now anyone that knows me really well will know that I'm not so good at "being still" or "waiting"! Ever! And looking back that is why I would learn to do these things that God wanted me to do. It took me about 4 months to come to the realization that I was going to have to wait and be still. So I decided I would do just that. I actually became happy in the process, I made myself learn to be happy again. Paid more attention to my kids and family needs. I can honestly say I found peace and calmness through this process. My faith was tested through it.
While on our road trip I also felt great peace. I loved looking around at the potential new town and new possibilities. Driving home I felt this nagging pull at my soul. I still love this place, don't get me wrong. But the hurts returned. The hurts I thought I had left behind me returned. Maybe this is a reminder that these are things I need to work on in my heart. Maybe this little "opportunity" to leave this town and then return was for me to learn that I need to find healing in my heart for those hurts. Maybe this potential opportunity will never come to pass. If that is the case I learned that I do have some things to still look forward to in my life. I can and have found happiness in the struggles of daily life.
Now I'm ready for my little chickies to come home. This is what I call my kiddos. They are my chickies and I'm the mommy bird giving them wings to fly. They flew away for a week and now it's time for them to fly back home. I miss them.
I'm not a big fan of change but this change would be good for my soul. This opportunity came out of no where. I wasn't looking for a change and actually was quiet content right where I was at. I was beginning to settle into my life. I spent two years in grad school and then had to spend a year coming down from the stress of juggling those activities. Long story short, I felt lost in this process...lost in the sense that I didn't know where my life was going or what I was suppose to do with it.
Through this process, I kept getting this sense of "be still" and "wait". Now anyone that knows me really well will know that I'm not so good at "being still" or "waiting"! Ever! And looking back that is why I would learn to do these things that God wanted me to do. It took me about 4 months to come to the realization that I was going to have to wait and be still. So I decided I would do just that. I actually became happy in the process, I made myself learn to be happy again. Paid more attention to my kids and family needs. I can honestly say I found peace and calmness through this process. My faith was tested through it.
While on our road trip I also felt great peace. I loved looking around at the potential new town and new possibilities. Driving home I felt this nagging pull at my soul. I still love this place, don't get me wrong. But the hurts returned. The hurts I thought I had left behind me returned. Maybe this is a reminder that these are things I need to work on in my heart. Maybe this little "opportunity" to leave this town and then return was for me to learn that I need to find healing in my heart for those hurts. Maybe this potential opportunity will never come to pass. If that is the case I learned that I do have some things to still look forward to in my life. I can and have found happiness in the struggles of daily life.
Now I'm ready for my little chickies to come home. This is what I call my kiddos. They are my chickies and I'm the mommy bird giving them wings to fly. They flew away for a week and now it's time for them to fly back home. I miss them.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
New volunteering adventure under way
Tonight was the first night of a new ministry program called teen mom choices offered through Stillwaters here in Kaufman. God led me to the ministry of teen moms seven years ago. I was the leader of teen mops and we met with our teen moms on a weekly basis every week until I delivered Luke. I stepped out of the role to take some time off. I felt that I needed to focus on my children and family. Now God has told me it is time to get active with teen moms again. I had to pray really hard for this calling this time around. I get so attached to the young moms and they become such a big part of my life that I wasn't sure I was ready to step into this role again just yet. I had wanted to wait until my children were completely grown or maybe not go this direction of ministry again. Working with teenagers is a challenge in and of itself but throw in a baby and this can create some speed bumps. But of course my plans are not what God has planned for my life. I had to learn a long time ago that when I'm called to do something I need to go with it and not fight it.
We had five young moms at the first meeting tonight. I was so blessed meeting them. These young women are so passionate about being moms and are eager to learn how to be a mom. That is my passion too, to teach them how to be the best mom they can be. They may have made a mistake that led to this path but I feel that one of my roles on this earth is to teach them that even though the decisions they made in the past impacted their future, it doesn't have to destroy them. They can be the best mom to their child if they so desire. And all of the girls that have gone through this type of program have made that decision. They honestly want to learn how to be good moms. I had the fortune with the last group of girls to witness several of them be baptised. I cried each time.
This time around I will be leading some workshops several times a month. Each one of the girls has a mentor mom that is partnered up with them one on one. What a wonderful idea! This helps the teen mom to bond with an experienced mom for help, advise, etc. Even though these girls have their own moms, this is another support system for them to be successful. I am the product of two teen parents. And I honestly believe that if a program of this type could have been around for my mom things may have been different for her. She had no support system in place besides her mom. If a program like this could have taken her under their wing, imagine the difference it could have made for her when she struggled to learn how to be a mom. Even though I turned out pretty decent (: there are many kids from teen parents that do not. Perfect example, studies have shown that a huge majority of folks in prison were born to teen parents. Their lack of knowledge and skills of parenting tend to show through the children they raise. I'm not saying all teen parents don't know what they are doing but there are a huge number of them that have no idea on raising a child. Programs like teen mom choices and teen mops take teen moms and help to shape them and mold them into responsible parents.
Wrapping this up, I feel extremely blessed to be a part of this new endeavor. Ketra and Melissa, the ladies in charge of setting up the program, have worked countless hours getting this program off the ground here and I am blessed beyond words in my awe of them. They are wonderful Godly women that I am proud to know! And I'm very thankful to have them as a support for my life too!
We had five young moms at the first meeting tonight. I was so blessed meeting them. These young women are so passionate about being moms and are eager to learn how to be a mom. That is my passion too, to teach them how to be the best mom they can be. They may have made a mistake that led to this path but I feel that one of my roles on this earth is to teach them that even though the decisions they made in the past impacted their future, it doesn't have to destroy them. They can be the best mom to their child if they so desire. And all of the girls that have gone through this type of program have made that decision. They honestly want to learn how to be good moms. I had the fortune with the last group of girls to witness several of them be baptised. I cried each time.
This time around I will be leading some workshops several times a month. Each one of the girls has a mentor mom that is partnered up with them one on one. What a wonderful idea! This helps the teen mom to bond with an experienced mom for help, advise, etc. Even though these girls have their own moms, this is another support system for them to be successful. I am the product of two teen parents. And I honestly believe that if a program of this type could have been around for my mom things may have been different for her. She had no support system in place besides her mom. If a program like this could have taken her under their wing, imagine the difference it could have made for her when she struggled to learn how to be a mom. Even though I turned out pretty decent (: there are many kids from teen parents that do not. Perfect example, studies have shown that a huge majority of folks in prison were born to teen parents. Their lack of knowledge and skills of parenting tend to show through the children they raise. I'm not saying all teen parents don't know what they are doing but there are a huge number of them that have no idea on raising a child. Programs like teen mom choices and teen mops take teen moms and help to shape them and mold them into responsible parents.
Wrapping this up, I feel extremely blessed to be a part of this new endeavor. Ketra and Melissa, the ladies in charge of setting up the program, have worked countless hours getting this program off the ground here and I am blessed beyond words in my awe of them. They are wonderful Godly women that I am proud to know! And I'm very thankful to have them as a support for my life too!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Revamping this thing
So finally tonight I had some time to just sit and work on this blog. I was so frustrated with it earlier in the summer that I just gave up on it. I created a new blog where I made a challenge for myself. Read below if your interested to learn more. After being so frustrated with one blog I thought I must be insane to try to keep up with two blogs at one time! And especially after school starts who am I kidding, I will barely have time to keep up with one if at all possible. That is another one of my goals for this school year, to write here more. I love looking at other people's blogs and catching up with their thoughts and lives. I found a new blog tonight searching for blog templates and the lady is an interior designer here in Dallas! I want to get in touch with her and have her come talk to my interior design students in the spring. Too cool! Ok, so I teach interior design...but please don't look at my house :) It's a mess! It is definitely lived in I must say!
I have spent time this summer working on Paige's room. Last summer was Leah's room and I had promised Paige I would do her room next. She wanted pink walls with zebra stripes. I opted to do a zebra stripe border in the middle of the room because I didn't want the impossible job of having to cover black stripes at a later date. When we moved into this house she was 4 and wanted a flow garden. I painted the walls a sky blue on top and green grass on the bottom. We painted wooden flowers and attached them to the wall. They came off easily but covering that blue and green paint about killed me! I had to cover them with three coats of pink paint. A friend of mine did her daughters border with zebra fabric so I have borrowed that idea for Paige's border. We bought some fabric today at the store and I want to get that finished this week. I recovered her bulletin board with hot pink and zebra fabric tonight and it turned out so cute!! Also I covered her night light with zebra fabric. It's cute too until you turn the light on and you can see the blue/yellow stripes shine through the fabric. Oh well, at least it's cute sitting there on the wall :) I plan to make her a zebra fabric valance and do make some letters spelling her name on her wall. She doesn't know that part yet, she will be surprised!
So hopefully next summer I can tackle the living room. I want to paint the walls in there. It's boring and bland right now, white walls staring at me! I did paint the walls next to the fireplace last summer chocolate brown. They look good next to the white fireplace. Yes, white fireplace! Whom ever remodeled this house painted the bricks white and I haven't tackled trying to paint over them or remove the paint. Another project for another day. Then next I need to tackle the playroom walls. They are also a boring white. But then Luke will probably want me to redo his room in there somewhere. His walls are a blue denim wash right now. It took me so long to do his room I just hate to cover it up yet. He keeps telling me he wants spiderman on his walls right now but who knows what he will want next year or next month for that matter.
This is the start of my last week off for summer 2010 vacation. It has been fast and furious but thank God I didn't have to go to school this summer to take classes like the past two summers!!
I have spent time this summer working on Paige's room. Last summer was Leah's room and I had promised Paige I would do her room next. She wanted pink walls with zebra stripes. I opted to do a zebra stripe border in the middle of the room because I didn't want the impossible job of having to cover black stripes at a later date. When we moved into this house she was 4 and wanted a flow garden. I painted the walls a sky blue on top and green grass on the bottom. We painted wooden flowers and attached them to the wall. They came off easily but covering that blue and green paint about killed me! I had to cover them with three coats of pink paint. A friend of mine did her daughters border with zebra fabric so I have borrowed that idea for Paige's border. We bought some fabric today at the store and I want to get that finished this week. I recovered her bulletin board with hot pink and zebra fabric tonight and it turned out so cute!! Also I covered her night light with zebra fabric. It's cute too until you turn the light on and you can see the blue/yellow stripes shine through the fabric. Oh well, at least it's cute sitting there on the wall :) I plan to make her a zebra fabric valance and do make some letters spelling her name on her wall. She doesn't know that part yet, she will be surprised!
So hopefully next summer I can tackle the living room. I want to paint the walls in there. It's boring and bland right now, white walls staring at me! I did paint the walls next to the fireplace last summer chocolate brown. They look good next to the white fireplace. Yes, white fireplace! Whom ever remodeled this house painted the bricks white and I haven't tackled trying to paint over them or remove the paint. Another project for another day. Then next I need to tackle the playroom walls. They are also a boring white. But then Luke will probably want me to redo his room in there somewhere. His walls are a blue denim wash right now. It took me so long to do his room I just hate to cover it up yet. He keeps telling me he wants spiderman on his walls right now but who knows what he will want next year or next month for that matter.
This is the start of my last week off for summer 2010 vacation. It has been fast and furious but thank God I didn't have to go to school this summer to take classes like the past two summers!!
Off to Camp!
Original post 7/11/10
Time for camp!!! Paige left this afternoon for church camp with tons of other kids from our church. She was soooo excited. The cool part for me was to see all of the girls her age that were going. I was excited to see that. I hope they will all stick together through the years and stay together through youth. Leah hasn't been that fortunate. There aren't very many girls her age in her youth group and she is always saying how she wished there were more girls her age so I'm glad that Paige is fortunate to have this group of girls. She was all "zebraed" out with her bags. I think she was a little bit nervous this afternoon. I'm hoping that she will jump off the bus and come running up to me yelling "I'm going back next yr mom!" like she did last year... I'm hopeful at least.
Time for camp!!! Paige left this afternoon for church camp with tons of other kids from our church. She was soooo excited. The cool part for me was to see all of the girls her age that were going. I was excited to see that. I hope they will all stick together through the years and stay together through youth. Leah hasn't been that fortunate. There aren't very many girls her age in her youth group and she is always saying how she wished there were more girls her age so I'm glad that Paige is fortunate to have this group of girls. She was all "zebraed" out with her bags. I think she was a little bit nervous this afternoon. I'm hoping that she will jump off the bus and come running up to me yelling "I'm going back next yr mom!" like she did last year... I'm hopeful at least.
Movies with my Dad
Original post 6/28/10
Awww, movie time with my dad. Today my dad took the kids and I to see Toy Story 3. What a cute movie!! I think I loved it as much as the kids did. Listening to Luke laugh at the different scenes was the best part. He was cracking up! It was priceless.
The best part, my dad leaned over and said I sure do love your kids and you too. Aww, he said he enjoyed that so much. When I was a young teenager my dad use to pick my brother and I up from school every afternoon and go to the movies. It didn't matter what was showing, we saw it. We went so much that we got to know the lady working there so well that she gave us free drinks, popcorn and movie posters. What I didn't know then was that my dad was in a severe depression and one of the only things keeping him pulled out of it was taking us to the movies. I wondered why we were going to the movies so much and after a while it did get tedious because I would have homework or something to do but had to wait and do it after going to the movies. Maybe that's why I have such a love for movies now. I love going to the theatre, the smell and taste of movie popcorn and an ice cold drink. Times were different back then and movies were a lot cheaper then they are today. I bet I saw every Clint Eastwood movie made in the 80's at the theatre.
Ok, back from memory lane, Toy Story 3 was adorable. I loved the theme of the toys pulling together to help each other out, team work. And the end, when Andy's mom walks into his room broke my heart. Leah is only a few short years away from leaving home and going to college. I'm not ready.
Afterwards, dad took us to a soda shop where they make old fashioned ice cream floats, shakes and malts. YUM! The kids and I really enjoyed it. We had to wait there for some time after eating because a storm blew in and it was raining really hard. On the way back to dad's house, I let Paige drive up to dad's house and then let Leah drive us out. They were cracking me up until Leah almost hit a truck that came around the curve and ran into a ranch fence. Where that truck came from I have no clue! But it scared both of us to death and Leah said she was done with driving and stopped the van in the middle of the road and got out. I yelled at her to get back in and at least drive to the SIDE of the road and lets trade. And she stopped ride at the edge of the turn, scared me half to death. Think her driving days are a way down the road....get it driving a ways down the road....hahahah, crack myself up.
We came home and Maw-maw's and Paw-paw's were here from Colorado. The kids were excited. We ate dinner, enjoyed our time together and went for a long walk at the park.
Awww, movie time with my dad. Today my dad took the kids and I to see Toy Story 3. What a cute movie!! I think I loved it as much as the kids did. Listening to Luke laugh at the different scenes was the best part. He was cracking up! It was priceless.
The best part, my dad leaned over and said I sure do love your kids and you too. Aww, he said he enjoyed that so much. When I was a young teenager my dad use to pick my brother and I up from school every afternoon and go to the movies. It didn't matter what was showing, we saw it. We went so much that we got to know the lady working there so well that she gave us free drinks, popcorn and movie posters. What I didn't know then was that my dad was in a severe depression and one of the only things keeping him pulled out of it was taking us to the movies. I wondered why we were going to the movies so much and after a while it did get tedious because I would have homework or something to do but had to wait and do it after going to the movies. Maybe that's why I have such a love for movies now. I love going to the theatre, the smell and taste of movie popcorn and an ice cold drink. Times were different back then and movies were a lot cheaper then they are today. I bet I saw every Clint Eastwood movie made in the 80's at the theatre.
Ok, back from memory lane, Toy Story 3 was adorable. I loved the theme of the toys pulling together to help each other out, team work. And the end, when Andy's mom walks into his room broke my heart. Leah is only a few short years away from leaving home and going to college. I'm not ready.
Afterwards, dad took us to a soda shop where they make old fashioned ice cream floats, shakes and malts. YUM! The kids and I really enjoyed it. We had to wait there for some time after eating because a storm blew in and it was raining really hard. On the way back to dad's house, I let Paige drive up to dad's house and then let Leah drive us out. They were cracking me up until Leah almost hit a truck that came around the curve and ran into a ranch fence. Where that truck came from I have no clue! But it scared both of us to death and Leah said she was done with driving and stopped the van in the middle of the road and got out. I yelled at her to get back in and at least drive to the SIDE of the road and lets trade. And she stopped ride at the edge of the turn, scared me half to death. Think her driving days are a way down the road....get it driving a ways down the road....hahahah, crack myself up.
We came home and Maw-maw's and Paw-paw's were here from Colorado. The kids were excited. We ate dinner, enjoyed our time together and went for a long walk at the park.
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