A cold Hawaiian day

My last post was on the serious side of things, so this should lighten things up a bit. My mind has been in blog mode all day which means anything remotely interesting registers as "I could blog about that!" We'll see how much of that really makes it into this blog.

When I woke up this morning, I thought, "I wanna be a teacher!" Today was a teacher day. Tomorrow - probably won't be. We'll just see. For those who don't know, I'm majoring in English Education and Psychology. I want to be a school counselor, but I also could see myself teaching. sometimes. like today. 

I started the morning off meeting Lindi for coffee/brunch. Last week we did the same thing, but it wasn't just to hang out. For a couple months now, every day we try to text each other a Bible verse, or something we've learned that day concerning our relationship with Christ. It's amazing how much better I've been about staying on track simply because she'll text me a verse. I don't read my Bible just because I want to send her a verse, but it gives me that extra push to actually DO it, then God gives the rewards of it. So starting last week we decided to share our verses in person for that day, and it was really cool! For January we decided to read through Proverbs together. Today being the third, we read Proverbs 3 out loud and made fun notes about it. It's very cool to be able to do that with a friend. I've never had that, and I'm not sure why, but I'm sure glad I do now!

After Lindi and I had our lovely time, I went to Fresh Market. Have you ever been to Fresh Market? It's not enough just to know about Fresh Market; you must experience Fresh Market. This is how Fresh Market makes me feel. I walk in and everything is green, I feel healthy! I hear classical music, I feel sophisticated and fancy. I see fresh stuff that's not in Walmart, I feel wealthy! THEN! I see oriental, exotic, unAmerican things which make me feel less American! Truly, it is an experience. Here's a picture of my stuff I got.

 The cheese is baby swiss. I don't like aged swiss, but I could eat this whole block in one sitting. Chocolate covered peanuts are always yummy and remind me of my grandpa. Then those little squares are for me to share with you as part of the unAmerican experience! I'm not even sure what they are yet! because that's not English. I'm assuming hazlenut for the green, then the brown one is a cracker? We'll see :)

After my Fresh experience, I consumed some cheeeeese (enough to go with one serving of the crackers lol), then went for a walk with my mom at the park. Lucy, my dog, came too. It was so pretty! It was about 30 degrees all day today. This is cold for Chattanooga. We complain when it's 60 degrees in December, then cry when it's 30 in January... gotta talk about somethin I reckon. I thought it was pretty lovely considering I had on leggings, jeans, socks, 1...2..3 shirts, a hoodie, and a jacket, a scarf and a hat. The sun was refreshing today.

Where I spend my summers.

After our walk, we (I) made pizza. It was alright I guess... At least it was pretty...

Before it went in the oven

It's a Hawaiian pizza since it has ham and pineapple. When I have a family some day, I want to have at least one night each week that's a theme party (mostly dinner). For example, tonight would have been Hawaiian night and my girls would wear grass skirts and leighs and the boys would wear tacky flowery shirts with shorts. We would do something that people from the chosen culture do. Like... if we were asian maybe we would eat with chopsticks while sitting on pillows on the floor. I'd do my research and make it educational and fun for my kiddos.

Two more semi-related things:

Related to my time with Lindi: School starts next week for both of us. Right now, it's easy to do my study of the Bible and prayer time because I want to do it and I feel like doing it. When I have homework for 3 classes, paper for another, and a test in another? I'm not gunna feel like doing it. I won't have time. But I have to make time, and make myself do it even when I don't feel like it. Hopefully this accountability thing Lindi and I have will help push both of us forward in doing it. If you care to pray for us, do. Maybe my readers can keep me accountable by making sure I mention something I'm learning every so often, like every week when I blog (like I'm supposed to....).

Kiddos!: I have so missed my kids! I don't really miss going to work, but I do miss the joy they bring me daily. Tomorrow I will see them again. No, I don't feel like getting up and getting ready for work, but I do look forward to seeing their smiling faces and eagerness to see what snack we have or what games we'll play or if they have to wear their jackets outside. I'm pretty sure that tomorrow nothing they do will make me mad because I will just be so glad to see them again! I pray that this extra time with their family and less structured time will make them excited to come back to school (Yeah right), and that I'll be able to manage all of them despite this recovery from vacation. How thankful I am for a job that I adore with children who make my life such a bright place to live! :D I'm sure you'll be hearing about some of the cute things they say or do that I'd like to share. Until then...

MY BEST FRIEND IS ENGAGED!

So it's midnight and I just got home... why? Nope... I don't party. Nope... it's winter so I wasn't just hangin out outside. Nope... wasn't at a movie... I was talkin to my best friend for 3 hours at Steak and Shake! :D It's just so exciting! :D

MY BEST FRIEND IS GETTING MARRIEDDDD!!!!! 

I get to be part of it and that is soooo exciting to me! When I first found out Joe was going to propose to Lindi, I was a little nervous that she would be all married and just forget about me and not be a good friend anymore. But since Christmas Eve when she called me at 12:13am (ish) to tell me Joe proposed, I've been totally on cloud 9 hah. She's picked the date already and is starting to get things in order. Of course there's still a ton to do.

You know how annoying it is when 6 people get engaged this week on facebook? YES I am irritated by it. But this is so much more exciting! I am involved in learning all the little details so far and there's only more to come. I'm SO thankful for my friendship with Lindi, so since you care, I'm going to tell you our life story. :) You're welcome!

In 2007 I got my first job at a family restaurant. Being 16, I was the youngest person there and the scapegoat of everything that went wrong. I quit after 4 months. A couple weeks later, I got a job at McAlister's Deli. After working there a little while, Lindi also started working there. She was 16 and I was 17 (like this matters). One night we were just tired of sweeping other peoples' messy bread crumbs up and I, for one, was STARVing (not like kids in Africa, but ya know). Lindi seemed pretty cool. She always made me laugh. But you know how you initiate a friendship and then you're like "dang, why did I even talk to that person. Now they won't leave me alone!" I was afraid of that. But despite that, I decided to be friendly. "Are you hungry? Do you wanna go to Waffle House after this?" haha I was wondering "is this weird? ... what if she doesn't wanna be my friend?" but she WAS hungry (we're always hungry), so we went to waffle house after work and talked and laughed all night. I couldn't remember having that much fun or laughing so much in a long time! After we both quit McAlister's we kinda lost touch. Then one day she needed a job so I got her a job at Ankar's (ohhhh Ankars).... now we joke about all the wonderful life lessons we learned from Ankar's. It's always a great conversation. Ever since Ankar's we've been pretty good friends. We can talk about ANYthing and when we have a problem with each other, we just say it. And we try to work on being better friends for each other. When I'm mad, she's mad with me. When I'm excited, she might be a little more excited for me than I am for myself. Lindi and I can laugh about anything together and it's not awkward. We can talk about our Christian life and share what we're learning. It's very clear to us that God put us together (it sounds like we're getting married...). What are the chances that someone you work with at a deli as a teenager will be a life long friend? Then we don't talk for months, and are reunited. We pray for each other and love each other. I'm so thankful for a friend who understands me and while we are alot alike, we're very different too. Her friendship means the world to me. In fact, a week on their honeymoon... not being able to talk to her? Well... she better call me and send me pictures from the beach is all I gotta say. I might have to hang out with her mom or something to make up for it. Ugh let's not think about that.

I remember the first time I met Joe. I was a little overwhelmed. Joe's not the typical person you expect when your friend wants to introduce you to her boyfriend for the first time. But he's hilarious and that's all I remember about that night. Hanging out with Joe and Lindi is so much fun. I never feel like the third wheel or out of place. They always make me feel at home and comfortable with them. And there's no doubt that Joe will do something like start randomly singing "Everything" by Brad Paisley  from the backseat of the car when there's a totally different song on the radio.... I'm so happy that Lindi is going to spend her life with such a happy person. Lindi by the way, never lets people depress her. Working at Ankar's, it's pretty easy to get pissed at the world for everything. I mean, look who we're workin for here... old men who are at a restaurant 7 days a week for at least 8 hours a day... when they should be retired, playing golf and watching soaps. It's kinda a pissy place to work. But NOT with Lindi! She cheers anything up...

Well I'm just rambling now about two happy funny people. Surely, you can't wait to meet them.

Anyways, this is the first time I've been asked to be a bridesmaid. I get to go register with Lindi for the wedding and look at dresses with her and see her planning stuff online. Yeah, we just got done talking for three hours (not just about the wedding), but in the morning we're meeting for coffee so she can show me some stuff online she's started planning with www.theknot.com . YAY! Here's some pictures of us fun kids. :)

Lindi and me on Christmas Eve

This is the present I made for Lindi for Christmas.
I should blog about that soon.
Porter will be her new last name :)
and she can hang this in their house soon.

Here's a video that's dedicated to Joe... you might think it's funny.