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...

Going Home!

This evening Matthew and I will be flying home to see my family. I can't wait! We'll come back late Sunday night - so we'll be able to enjoy 4 days there. I probably won't post while I'm there, unless we have some down time. If not, I'll be sure to post about the trip next week. Our plans are to simply relax and enjoy being with family :) We haven't seen them since the wedding in December and haven't been home to NC since Thanksgiving. We'll also be providing entertainment/music for my youngest sister's Sweet 16 party Friday night and visiting all my extended family on Saturday. It's so nice that my relatives on both sides of the family live less than an hour away - in the same town. Matt and I will also go hang out with my other sister at UNC Chapel Hill (she's a freshman!) on Friday and bring her home for the weekend.

Here's pictures from the last time we were home.

That's Dad and Matt putting up Christmas decorations. I love having the house decorated!

This is me with my sisters ~ Hillary is in the middle and Meredith is on the right.

Well, I have much to do before we leave! I must get busy tackling the things on my list...

What's in a name?

Being a teacher (well, sub for now) means I come across many interesting names quite regularly. If a name really grabs my attention, I write it down because they are always fun to share and look back on :) I thought I'd share a few today...

One morning in February I was in a first grade class, walking around the room checking students off the attendance list while they did their morning work. I heard some students using the word "whisper" and I smiled to myself, thinking it was a good sign that they knew to follow the rules and whisper to each other if they had any questions. Next thing I know, a student yells "Whisper! We have a sub today!" Well lo and behold, this little Whisper comes and sits in the empty desk before me. Whisper was a sweet girl that I will remember for a long time.

I had another first grade class that gets the award for the greatest confusing names of all (so far, at least). I begin my class like I do each time, introducing myself and then going around the room so I can hear the students pronounce their names. This class had me laughing in amazement... To my left sat Monesha, and as I went around the room there was also a Ranesha, Danesha, and Dranesha (all with the beginning short "u" sound and none of these girls were related). That's not all... I also learned that there were two boys in the class sharing similar names: Xavier and Xavian. That's six students out of fifteen so far... the last two interesting names in that class were Q'Darius and Dequarius. What a day that was! I remembered those 8 names because they were so unique and confusing :)

When I work with Rose's girls, we have two sisters named Nitheria and Nigeria. I wonder about the story behind those names... One of the girls doesn't even go by her name, but goes by "Pooh" instead because of her resemblance to the character :) Their third sister is Shetallis, a name so unlike Nitheria or Nigeria, that again I wonder how that name came about. Their brother goes by "Gator" and he's a 2nd grader as tall as I am! I'm not sure of his real name. Another interesting name of a girl that hangs out with us when we have Rose's girls is Vanity. What a name - poor girl.

A few weeks ago I subbed in fourth grade and met a boy named Kirill. I immediately associated this name with the shrimp-like krill found in the ocean. Hmm... maybe a family name that's been passed down? Not sure. Today I taught music for 2nd, K, and 1st grade. In my 2nd grade class I was going down the attendance, calling out names so I could associate the name with a face. The names on the paper are listed last name, first name, middle initial. Well, one student in particular was listed as Smith, Willow A. (note: Smith is not the true last name). I thought this was a student with two last names and the first name was the initial - a mistake on the paper. Nope, no mistake... I asked whose last name was Smith, and this girl raised her hand stating her name as Willow. Interesting, I thought, and unique. Then I recalled a movie character with the same name... Remember Grandmother Willow in Pocahontas? Maybe this Willow will grow to be as wise as Grandmother, yet not creepy like the old talking tree ;) 

Names are personal. Some are very common, others are passed down from generation to generation, holding family sentiment, and then there are those that make you raise your eyebrows and laugh in amazement. I look forward to adding more names to my list in the future!