It's My Last Week!

Can you find me in the photo? Ha. I have made it through four weeks as site coordinator for the Freedom School and now I'm down to my last one (Praise God!). It really has flown by, although there were times I thought week 5 would never come. The National staff require that an end of the summer report be completed (it's HUGE) so that is taking up my spare time during the day. We also have our Freedom School finale Thursday night for parents, funders, and other members of the community. The scholars will be performing in drama, African dance, music, sign language, step, and book talks. On Friday is our big field trip - Blizzard Beach - I'm already praying now that things go smoothly on that day. A water park with a large group is a bad idea in my opinion, but we will manage. I am thankful for this opportunity because having a summer job is a pretty great blessing. And having one that lasts 5 weeks is wonderful because it allows for some relaxing/vacation time!

Vacation begins this weekend :) I am thrilled to share that I will be on a cruise to the Bahamas with my husband and family come next Monday. I will return on Friday with pictures to post! My parents and sisters drive down this coming Saturday so that allows some extra time for them to come see how we've turned our apartment into a home since they were last here for the wedding. When the cruise is over, I will have a week of glorious "nothing" that I can spend job searching some more (endless process) and catching up on crafts/home projects. Matthew and I will then leave for a week in Ohio visiting his family. We will have a new nephew on his side this Wed. and we especially look forward to seeing him!

Last time I posted, I mentioned a 6 month anniversary surprise my husband was planning. I have to say that he is incredible with surprises and loves planning those sorts of things. Well, we set out driving early on that Saturday morning to a destination unknown. Just when I thought we'd be going to St. Augustine (I was secretly hoping we would!) he took a strange detour and had me quite confused. With a clever mind, he had mapped out another way to St. Augustine that I wouldn't recognize. I felt loved and joyful when we pulled into the familiar parking garage. St. Augustine is special for us because it's where he proposed, then we visited again a year later - just a few short months before our wedding - and now we were back as the newlyweds!

With a picnic lunch, we began walking in a direction we hadn't been before. Not sure what he was up to, I followed along as we went down this side street and into a subdivision. A few moments later, he brought me back around to a scooter/bike rental business. He said I needed to sign a paper and then we'd have a motorized scooter for as long as we wanted! His reasoning behind this idea was so sweet - he knew that I wanted to ride a motorcycle so I could sit behind him and put my arms around him, so with no motorcycle license or motorcycle, he improvised and planned this little adventure for us. After a few test circles, we headed out over to the historic district. We decided to make our first stop at 10th Street, the location on the beach where we were engaged. We took a photo and then headed on our way to the pier for lunch.



At the pier we met a young, neat Christian couple that lives in Maitland, just a short distance from our apartment. We hope to meet up with them for lunch sometime soon. When we left the pier, we headed back to the historic district to cruise around. Here we are on the scooter. I photographed and filmed much of our ride around the city.





Our evening concluded with a nice dinner at PizzAlley's. We like to visit different restaurants while there. Following dinner we walked the streets, wandering in and out of shops, just soaking it in and enjoying being with each other. It truly was a lovely 6th month anniversary!



Sleep is beginning to overcome me so I'm off to get rest before another Freedom School day. It felt good to post and I look forward to catching up on blog reading soon!

Freedom School...

Oh how I wish my days provided adequate time for some much needed blogging. I will not even attempt to explain all that is happening in my life right now. And when I say all, I mean - Freedom School. Remember that 10 day training I attended in TN? Well, we have completed one full week of Freedom School and now have four more to go. As much as I'd like to indulge you in the details of the last week's events, I am going to refrain because I'd risk giving into frustration and negativity once again. Let's just say it's been one of those weeks... My prayer is that I am able to handle whatever and whoever crosses my path.

I need to take a minute and brag about my husband. He has been absolutely incredible through all of this. While I was away in TN he organized and cleaned the apartment - he made a list for me to look over when I got home that sent me around our little home "oohing" and "ahhing" over what he had accomplished. He has cooked me dinner many recent nights and held me when I could no longer hold back my tears of frustration. My husband whisked me away on a spontaneous hotel/beach trip a few weekends back and has also informed me that he has planned a full day for us this Saturday to celebrate our 6 month anniversary (it's a surprise, so I'll have to share next week!). It's wonderful to know that no matter what is happening during the work day, I have a safe, warm, and loving husband to come home to. The words husband and home make me smile :) I am truly blessed.

My last day of Freedom School is July 17th. Guess what happens July 20th? My family will be down from NC and they will be taking Matthew and I on a cruise with them! I am so excited and really looking forward to a vacation. It's a 4 night/5 day cruise with Royal Caribbean (the best!) and we'll be visiting the Bahamas. My family and I have taken this cruise before, but it's Matthew's first time on one. Yay for making memories! I'm very thankful for family and that we'll be able to spend quality time with them in only several more weeks :)

6 a.m. comes early so bedtime is soon. I'll close with a couple Freedom School week 1 photos. This was during our morning Harambee time - Photo 1 is of the scholars sitting quietly for Read-Aloud and Photo 2 is of the scholars doing one of their chants & cheers :

7 Days to Go...

Here's a quick update. So much has been happening that has left no time for blogging. Last Wednesday I had my final day at the elementary school because I had an early flight Thursday morning (early as in - I got up at 4:40) to go to National Training in Tennessee for CDF Freedom School. Never heard of it? Go here to check it out: http://www.childrensdefense.org/helping-americas-children/cdf-freedom-schools-program/          It truly is a great program.

I will admit that last week I was beyond stressed... school for the students does not end until this coming Wed. and I had to leave them a week early, meaning everything had to be finished. On top of that, my students I tutor had to be completed too in the afternoons. Then Freedom School training arrived much sooner than it needed to. Despite tears of stress and my unwillingness to leave FL (Did I mention I'd be gone 10 days and my students still had a week of school left? What about missing my husband? Oh, and let's not forget my in-laws were coming in the day I flew out so I wouldn't be there for their visit either) - yes, despite those issues, I am here with 7 days left to go. It's not terrible, in fact, I'm learning quite a bit and am being submerged in African American culture - completely unique experience. It's just a long time and I need prayer to stay energized. Today our interns arrive from our Freedom School sites jumping our numbers from 200 this past weekend (site coordinators) to a little over 1200! We have been told to prepare for chaos and loooooong days. Bring it on! If I don't survive this, then I will not be a site coordinator during our 5 weeks of school this summer.

Anyways, that's a quick update. I have to go load my luggage onto a bus and head to UT for our next week of training. Please keep me in your prayers. I miss my husband very much and it's also tough being only a state away from my family and not being able to see them! When I get back next Sunday I'll post pictures and write more as soon as I can. 

A Mess of Blessings

What a week it has been! I can't believe this time last Wednesday I was on a flight with my husband to NC. It was an incredible trip and seeing family was so wonderful. Here's some trip highlights:

Thursday morning we visited my Papa. It was good to see him because I'm not sure how much longer he'll be around. Afterward, we came home and took my youngest sister to have her ears pierced - second hole. That was part of our birthday present to her.




I can't believe she's 16! She got her license while we were there so we were sure to have her drive us around some :)

On Friday, Matthew, Meredith, and I went to visit my other sister at UNC Chapel Hill. She's a music major there and loves it. It was fun walking down Franklin St. and the beautiful campus (probably my favorite!) and seeing her dorm. We hung out in her room while she went to Spanish class, then took her home so we could all get ready for Meredith's party. Matthew took a picture of us with a UNC ram (not the official, I don't think) - he was just wandering around the area...



Friday night was the Sweet 16 party. What fun! It was held at this classic soda shop and they let us have the entire front portion of the restaurant. There was a stage for karaoke, a dance floor, everything was in the classic red/black/white colors, and of course there was unlimited soda! It was the cutest place and I'd love to go back on a Saturday when they have live music. Matt & I provided the music for the party and even sang karaoke with my middle sister and her friend (nothing to brag about). The cake was very unique and overall it was a great birthday for her. Here's just a couple of the photos taken that night. I don't have a good one of the inside of the place - it's on another camera in NC.





Saturday morning Matt & I left with my mom to go visit relatives on both sides of the family. They all live in the same town which makes visiting easy! I love going to Danville, VA because it's where we've always gone to see family since I was born. I like the familiarity of it and the memories the town has. We started off seeing my Grandma - she's the crazy one (dad's side) :) - and then saw my mom's aunt, stopped for lunch at Momma 'Possums (yum!) and off to visit mom's sister. When we left my aunt's house we visited my cousin and her husband at their adorable home. They've been married a year now and seeing their house made me hope Matthew and I can have one of our own closer to everyone soon! Our Saturday was busy, but completely worth it!

We had a unique opportunity while in town. Matthew's cousin happens to go to college somewhat locally and was in an art show this past weekend. The art show was in Durham, less than 20 minutes from the house. We took advantage of the opportunity since Matt doesn't get to see his cousins often and headed to the big art show. Adam is so talented! You can see some of his work in the background of our picture. You can view his artwork at www.achmoser.wordpress.com



Sunday was filled with church, relaxing, and good-byes as we boarded our plane back to Florida. It was 5 days filled with family blessings.

The blessings kept coming when we got back to our apartment. On my way to a sub job Monday morning, I got a call from a secretary at a school in Orlando letting me know a temporary teaching position for Kindergarten opened up until the end of the year. She basically told me the job was mine if I got all my paperwork in and the county approves, etc. Overwhelmed at first, I wasn't sure what to do. Just the week before I had come home from a day at that school and told Matthew I wasn't crazy about going back there again. Then the next day the secretary called and said she was going to use me more... and now she's been bending over backwards to help me get this job! I finished all the paperwork today so I now just wait to hear something. I'm still going to try to sub somewhere tomorrow, since I've spent the last two days getting paperwork done and missed out on working. What a blessing it'll be if I do get it! Even though it's only for a month... it's consistent work and that means the stress of not knowing where I'm going or what I'm walking in to will be gone (for the most part!) It'll also be teacher pay for a month which would be great :) We'll see what happens...

Another blessing happened yesterday when the lady in charge of my summer job e-mailed and asked if I'd be willing to step up from servant leader (teacher) to site coordinator (more like a principal). It's a 5 week job for the Freedom School and I was looking forward to being a teacher to the students. The possibility of being site coordinator would be wonderful too! I've always wanted to organize and oversee things and this would be great experience. The pay is $800 more too - not that money is everything, but every little bit does help pay those bills and Matt's student loans. I won't know until Monday because she is waiting to hear from the current site coordinator about whether or not she will be able to fulfill the role based on family problems. God's been opening some major doors this week and I'm anxious to see where they go...

My evening has been quite relaxing - I baked us some grouper, caught up on e-mails, drank pineapple smoothies with my husband by the pool, and played an intense game of Rummy while watching Planet Earth. He won by the way... we were tied and then his natural winning ability took over :( Next time I'll get him! Time for bed...