Steven had a birthday, Amy got a job! Exciting week? I think so!

Do you ever think back to a time in the past when something just "clicked"  in regards to learning from life? I find myself thinking back often to my lightbulb moment of patience. In the good 'ole days of high school, someone once asked me if I was enjoying working with the Awana Sparks club (K-2nd grade). I answered that I was, but that I thought I needed more patience. The response I heard was one of the simplest but most life-changing, "when you ask for patience, God puts you in situations that require it."

Looking for a job is never fun. It's very challenging and forces you to think a lot about yourself, evaluate, and eventually grow in many ways. It's been very frustrating, but definitely a situation that required and inspired a growth in patience. Not only in patience, but a humbleness that emerges through recognizing weaknesses, insecurities, and a deep set need for God in every area of your life. It's crazy to recognize growth when you lower yourself. Not only that, but recognizing where you are truely and watching God do as he has always promised, meeting where you are WITH so much more than you can ever imagine. (I hope my thoughts make sense!)

Anyway, this is all true and I could remain in this deep line of thinking but I have to share the slightly humorous ways that God has been teaching me patience. Steven and I do not have cable tv in our house. We use the good old fashioned rabbit ears with the convenient technology of a converter box that feels sorry for people who still use an antennae. This system worked just fine in Overland Park. Now we live in a 1950s Florida house with concrete walls. We thankfully have 3 of the major networks to watch most of what were our favorite shows. I can't even explain how frustrating it can be to have 3 channels (remember I'm thankful for!) that each have a different antennae position that changes every time you turn on the television. I can say that we do not watch nearly as much as we used to, which is usually a result of giving up finding the "perfect" spot. Sometimes when I choose to remember that it's just growing my patience, I also grow such a strong stubbornness that vows to conquer that television and after a 30-45 min battle, I can usually pull out a win! :) This definitely doesn't happen everyday. I also can't say that I've paired stubbornness and patience to work in my favor before.

On to the important news! I got a job! I have been blessed with a wonderful friend who is nearly married to one of Steven's good friends from Stetson. She had informed me of an open teacher position working with the autistic students in their learning center and offered to schedule me to shadow at the center to see if it were something that I was interested in. I should mention that the job in in Tampa, which is over an hour drive for us. I knew she made the drive and thought she was crazy. My last job was a 5 minute drive from my house! I loved my time observing and loved everyone that worked and attended the center. Two days later I was offered and accepted the job as the new lead teacher. I am going to have a classroom of four fairly high functioning students with different needs and their own lesson plans of daily work. I'm thrilled to have a challenge and to be able to look for creative, effective techniques to benefit each of them individually.

I will be car pooling with my friend, Marla who conveniently is reimbursed for her gas. (She is now also learning Italian in her car as she drives!) and since she stays for a couple of house after the kids go home, I will also work in the office as well as go through training to tutor typical students who come in after school hours. The support system at Huntington Learning Center is great, not to mention I'm already good friends with someone in management! I'm just so thrilled for the opportunity!

Other interesting stories. Let's see. Steven just had his 24th birthday. This year was a little different for him since he spent the day studying in the library. He took convenient breaks so we could enjoy breakfast and lunch together, which was great! He enjoyed his birthday Chipotle burrito that I happened to surprise him with. He rarely gets to eat there since I'm not exactly a fan (oops).  I also need to share this delicious dessert recipe that I received in one of those annoying daily emails that I signed up for at one point. It's a raspberry tiramisu trifle. (Steven is holding it in the second picture) SO good! Make it! You won't regret it!

http://www.recipe.com/raspberry-tiramisu-trifle/?sssdmh=dm17.544268&esrc=nwdr082811&email=3553337198

After our delicious dinner/dessert, we enjoyed the conversation of family, including two separate birthday songs from each of our two nieces. It's so great that they love talking on the phone, even if Aubri (age 5) felt that Steven was getting too old when she heard his age.

I also need to share that Bailey is deathly terrified of that Captain America balloon. I've never seen a dog so close to crying after I gently tossed the clip that holds the balloon in her general direction. I also have never crawled under a bed to apologize to one. She's turning into quite the sensitive pup! I suppose the velociraptor  dog costume (posted below) we were looking at for Halloween might not be entirely appropriate anymore! It'll still be hilarious, though! I love that dog.

We also attended our first Tampa Bay Rays baseball game last weekend. It was so much fun! We were able to enjoy a free hotdog, 12 oz. soda, and a bag of peanuts all for simply showing a bill from our current internet provider! Although I prefer the stadium setup of Kauffman, Tropicana's promotional deals were much tastier! The Rays also have a fun second mascot called DJ Kitty who shows up on the big screen occasionally between innings to rile up the crowd with his mad dj skills and hilarious apathetic expressions. I believe my favorite part was the slow clap beat accompanied by a pulsing image of the cat's eyes on the screen. How many baseball teams use a cat? I'm curious. It was great! However great he was, their main mascot did NOT have a hot dog launcher like the one used imfamously at the Royals stadium.

The Rays were playing the Red Sox for the wild card (sorry if I get the explanation wrong, I don't follow sports :). ) The game was extremely exciting as it went into extra innings and fans grew crazier at each play. I have to admit, I enjoyed seeing Steven get into the game like he did, but I DID have to pull him to his seat at times when he began taunting (harmlessly) the many Red Sox fans around us by shaking his keys in the air, dancing, yelling ect. Ha. It was fun.

Today we had a day off and decided to venture into Tampa to experience first-hand this IKEA we've heard so much about. What a zoo! We knew going on a weekend would be busy, but we weren't expecting them to trick us into never finding our way out of the store! :) lol. We first-timers, didn't realize you had to walk through the ENTIRE two level store (which is a maze, literally) before they led you to the only non-emergency exit. I was humored to find other couples wandering around with a quizzical look on their faces pointing to the exit signs. We didn't make any purchases, but we also weren't expecting to. I can't say they had anything I absolutely needed at this point. (I've become so frugal lately, I'll be surprised if I ever buy anything other than food again, haha). I will say that it was fun to get ideas for a house that allows for more creative decorating. 

I believe it's time to wrap up. There shall be more information coming as I'm sure stories and further life lessons will create themselves in the next coming days/weeks. Thank you all for putting up with my stories, some unnecessary, some vague. I enjoy writing them and maybe I should share them more often as to not lose effectiveness in translation from memory to screen. We'll see! :)

Thanks again to everyone who showed me love and support for my upcoming job. I really appreciate the prayers and celebration. I hope everyone is doing well. We'd love to hear from you! Please drop us a line sometime whether on this blog, our facebook pages or phone. We are so encouraged by the relationships we have. I will now leave you with some super cute pictures of our pup. :) Love you all!

This pillow turned into a new fort/nap spot.

 Her new favorite game of terrorizing the "monster" that is our bedspread until it completely envelopes her, creating the perfect nap spot. (There's a theme with her games.)