Headaches

Not a fun subject but I thought I would share because this is something I have been struggling with for several years now. I truly believe with all my heart that God brought me to Texas for healing, both spiritual and physical. For several years I have had headaches that progressively got worse. When I met with an allergist here in Texas (and also found out I no longer have allergies, including wheat) he referred me to a neurologist. Both the allergist and neurologist are amazing at their jobs and have been a blessing. However, going to the process of getting rid of my Chronic Daily Headaches (CDH) is not fun at all. The headaches may get worse in order to get better and I even had a major migraine one day. The headaches not only hurt (um, duh :) but they also exhaust me, especially now that they have gotten worse. So I am just ready to have more energy and headache free days.

Christmas/New Year's Vacation in Michigan!

Macy and Auntie Marie. I met Macy for the first time in June so she had lots of new tricks to show me :)

Aylah wearing her new Texas shirt:) I wanted her to have something that would reminder of me because I miss her so much. If you ask her about the shirt she will tell you it says Texas and that is where An Re lives. Macy is such a happy baby, always smiling, but loves to stick her tongue out in concentration. I wonder if she was eyeing a plate of my Mom's famous Christmas goodies? The banket and buckeyes are my favorite!

Favorite moments from my vacation home:

• a mobile Macy: crawling across the floor, up the stairs and pulling up to the couch


• a sleepy Macy: cuddling with Macy while rocking her to sleep


• wake-up calls courtesy of Aylah: "get up An Re" "I turn light on, tay?" "let's go play!"


• Aspen realizing I was home after almost a year: I have NEVER in my life seen her SO excited (she gave me kisses on the face-she never does that:)


• welcome at GRR: Mom, Dad, and Gramma Bea waiting for me at the airport


• a party with friends: nough said!


• lunch with a friend at Logan's: good company, good food!


• seeing all of my relatives: including one who I had not seen in quite awhile


• having a really good excuse for not sledding: I always get cold quickly and now since living in Texas I am a pansy when it comes to Michigan winter weather


• getting to drive Mom and Dad's vehicles: it's the little things in life that make me happy--I enjoy driving different vehicles, maybe because I drove different vehicles in catering and at the child care center


• Euchre with Dad, Andrea, and Josh: yeah, Dad and I only won one out of three but we still had a great time

I do not miss the Michigan weather for a minute but it was really weird not have cold temps before Christmas. Then Christmas Eve Day and Christmas Day were nasty in Texas. God was my comfort as I drove on pure ice to the slippery highways Christmas morning.

Although I have been enjoying the warm temps in Texas this winter I think it will be my last one here (I moved here in the middle of last winter). God has been speaking to me about moving to New Jersey and earning a MSW. It is also a huge bonus that my nieces live there and it is so hard to be so far away from them while they are growing up so quickly. And I really miss Andrea and Josh too.

I hope you and your families had a blessed holiday season. It is funny how two Thanksgivings ago was when God began to speak to me about Texas and now this Christmas about New Jersey. His plan is amazing and awesome and although this year of healing in Texas has not been easy I really needed it.

What I Am Thankful For

A lot of people are posting what they are thankful for on FB. I am putting it all here for you to read all at once. I like to be organized you know.

1. My LORD and Savior Jesus Christ
2. My family: Dad, Mom, Andrea, Josh, Aylah, Macy, Aspen
3. Charity, my roommate, who is allowing me to pay her rent and live with her in her home
4. My job (including my Christian coworkers and the infants that never cease to make me smile
and laugh), even though it is not my dream job
5. My car (and all of the new things I have had to install in/on it within the past 11 months) i.e.
a battery, ignition switch, tires, brakes etc.
6. Sunny and warm (notice I did not say hot!) Texas
7. The Immeker family (my Texan family) Jim, Lynne, and their sons Tyler, Justin, and Alex
8. God's plan for my life and his leading (my plans always suck and God knows what is best for
me)
9. Beautiful Lake Michigan, both the water and the squeaky sand
10. Forgiveness, nuf said
11. Walks outside
12. Hard Rock Christian music
13. All my good friends in Michigan, you know who you are ;)
14. Tall size jeans
15. Victoria's Secret underwear: it's a party in your pants!
16. Nice cold drinking water, and lots of it
17. Being able to talk on the phone with my two-year-old niece and knowing that she still
remembers me and misses me as much as I miss her
18. Meijer grocery stores, try living in a state that does not have them :(
19. Drag strips and all the guys who like to run their cars and crotch rockets there
20. Green grapes (really I think they are my favorite food)

Oops! Haven't posted in two months!

I have been one of those people who just does not post enough. Sorry! I have been thinking about this post a lot though. There are some things I have observed that deserve to be mentioned here.

1. People in Texas park in their driveway and on the street all the time and they have short driveways to begin with. This honestly perplex me for a long time! (I am embarrassed to admit). So why do they do it? Duh Marie! Texans don't have basements! (Which I feel is very unfortunate for them). Therefore all their crap ends up in their garage and thus absolutely no room for cars, not even one. Now, I have noticed that there is more than one garage that really needs my help. Why my help? Because when the garage door is open all I see is a heaping pile (as high as the garage itself) of stuff. Everything in the pile was just literally thrown into the pile! Oh these people need my help and do not even know it! I would absolutely LOVE to go through those piles one item at a time and decide if the item is worth pitching or saving. If it is worth saving then they can decide to do with it but it is not allowed back in the garage unless it belongs there...maybe Texans just need bigger garages or closets...The best garage I have seen though is several houses down from mine. I refer to it as "The Man Cave". I am not really sure if the wife/girlfriend/common law wife (another weird Texan thing) is allowed in the man cave but it definitely looks like a guy's place to hangout. The inside walls of the garage are painted a dark blueish gray, there is workout equipment (for building manly muscles), and get this: two camping type chairs and a nice sized t.v. On game nights you better believe the guys are out there. It cracks me up! (and yes I do believe I saw a fan out there on one of the hotter evenings.

2. Now I know I have mentioned the fences before but they also were perplexing me. Every house has a fence around the backyard and some about halfway up to the front yard. Why? I just could not see any reason except for the fact that the houses are all WAY too close to each other. My friend Lynne enlightened me. It is for safety. A random person cannot just go walking through a neighborhood and cannot even get there from a main road. You see, if the cul-de-sac is near the main road then there is a fence there also, expect for these are iron instead of wood. This also made me realize the neighborhoods are beyond confusing. And no I do not mean like the one-way roads in my parents neighborhood. Nope, these are worse! You can enter part of a neighborhood (which may actually go on for quite awhile but have different streets jutting off the main one) and go right only to find that after it turns the corner it is a cul-de-sac. So then if you try to go left you end up curving around several times and hit another cul-de-sac and then have to go down another street to get out. What?!? So robbers, I am sorry, you are out of luck if you plan to work in Texas. The homes are impossible to find and once you do find the one you want you will spend the next week trying to exit the neighborhood.

3. This one really is just beyond me...Right outside my bedroom window is the neighbor's front door. Huh?!? And right outside our front door is one of the neighbors' bedroom windows. This is because the front door of the house is on the side. This makes the front door area pitch black when you come home at night and if your neighbors like to slam there front door every time they use it (like mine do) you will be woken-up. Also, my neighbors like to leave their front door light on all night long. Now what man came up with this idea? ;) Note to self: never put your front door on the side of your house, especially if your neighbor's house is less than a stone's throw away. Also, do not put the pantry door right next to the refrigerator so you will never ever be able to fully open your refrigerator door. :(

4. My church has been without a pastor for maybe 4 or 5 months now. It was just announced today that the man our pastor search committee extended a call to will be visiting us the first Sunday in December so we can hear him preach and vote as a congregation (just a formality I think). We have had some really great speakers and our church has continued to flourish (adult/child baptisms and people joining) but it will be good to have a pastor again.

5. I am flying home on Christmas Day and staying through New Years!!! So excited! Cannot wait!! Want to see all y'all in Michigan :) (all y'all is plural for y'all).

6. Daily we have ten babies in my classroom at work. The ten enrolled in the infant are two-and-a-half months to ten months old and sometimes our twelve and thirteen month-olds who moved up come back to our room at the end of the day due to ratios. Yes, this means there are two teachers to ten kids and one teacher to four kids. It makes for a very busy day! I love all of the babies and never cease to be excited when they learn something new. My two coworkers are also wonderful, we make a great team.

7. My eyes and ears are still open to any job possibilities in Michigan or Texas. Working at the child care center has always been a temporary thing, especially since they lied to me about being able to apply for the assistant director's position after being there for 90 days. I continue to seek God's will for my next job but have not received any answers or nudgings yet.

8. Did you know there are only two Bureaus of Engraving and Printing in the U.S.? The one in Washington D.C. and one just down the road from me in Fort Worth. I went on a tour of the BEP with a friend and her sons. It was so cool! I learned a ton and would definitely go back again. This facility is making the new one hundred dollar bill and has been working on it for several years. So they had tarps up and windows closed in certain areas so we could not copy what they are doing ;) I highly recommend you checking it out if you ever find yourself in the area.

9. After getting lost too many times to mention a couple of weekends ago I went to Motorcycle Madness at one of the drag strips near here. It was definitely worth going! It made me laugh when I got up into the stands with my t-shirt and jeans on and there were guys with CarHeart (sp?) jackets on! (Don't worry I will still be freezing my butt off when I come home for Christmas). 60 degrees is the new 30 degrees for me :)

10. I have been on again off again sick after getting the Mono and upper respiratory infection. Please pray with me that good health will find me again soon.

11. Thank y'all for listening to my ramblings. I try to post sooner next time. Now don't forget to respond to my post and tell me if it was boring or um...whatever you thought.

Reason to Celebrate

Okay so all ya'll (I have been told this is plural for y'all) may not be celebrating with me but I sure am excited! While playing around on facebook I joined a Gluten-free group. After spending only a short time looking over their page I learned a ton and realized what a great resource this is for me. I am so excited to look into some of the information other people are sharing!

For those of you who may not know, I was diagnosed with a wheat allergy a couple of years back. It is SO hard at times to not eat wheat and actually I still do in small quantities. A gluten allergy includes wheat, rye, and barley. So when I go searching for gluten-free products I know they are wheat-free. So far it has not been easy trying to eat this way and definitely not cheap.

That is why I am so excited about learning more how to save money and find these products. Betty Crocker is making gluten-free cake, cookie, and brownie mixes and restaurants like Johnnie Carinos (they actually tell you what you can substitute to make a meal gf) and Olive Garden are adding gluten-free dishes to their menus.

My other reason to celebrate today was my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. I had a great time singing worship songs with one of my WOW Worship Cd's. Although I have a lot going on that is stressing me out, I still have an amazing God who is with me always.

FROGS!

A dear friend loves to remind me that before I meet my prince I must first kiss a lot of frogs. Well, one more frog down...how many more to go? Hopefully the next guy I kiss will be my prince. I have been praying for him for a looong time. Now I would not say that all of my dating relationships have been a waste. I have learned more about myself, about relationships with men, and (most importantly) lessons from God.

So now that y'all know I'm single once again, you should also know I am gaining in my fight against the Mono. I had energy last Saturday for the first time in almost two months. And I did not come home and take a nap every night last week. Now I did still sleep-in until 2:30pm yesterday but I was back in bed for the night at 11:30pm. For the short while I was awake yesterday I got so many things done and feel really good about what was accomplished!

Tomorrow starts a whole new school year at work and I will find myself drowning in the "Two's Room" as the lead teacher. Why do I say drowning? Because they are not sweet little two-year-olds (I loved being a teacher to the two-year-olds at Appletree). They are two-and-a-half year olds who do not like to listen, are potty training, and gang up on me in groups of eleven!!! (The ratio in Michigan is one teacher to eight 2.5yr olds, big difference there).

I am not happy about being the lead teacher because 1. I am only in this classroom for three hours of curriculum time a day 2. I so far have been given no time to prepare my lesson plan (and it starts tomorrow--not good when the teacher has no prep time) 3. I was promised there would be at least 12 children in the classroom requiring there to be a second teacher with me (there are going to be 11 as of the counts on Friday) 4. Actually if there are enough kids for two teachers, the one scheduled to work with me is no help what-so-ever so I guess that would not be good either

Well, I think it is my nap time now. I am really excited about starting the Beth Moore study "Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman" at church tonight. The cool thing is my mom is starting the same study at her church too!

Best Birthday Gift Ever!

The third weekend in June I flew to Atlanta, Georgia to meet my newest niece. Actually I went to babysit Macy because Andrea was in a friend's wedding and needed someone to take care of our little princess. As you can see in the picture, Macy has the most beautiful blue eyes, amazingly red hair, and the softest cheeks perfect for lots of kisses from her Auntie Marie. I had the privilege of taking care of this sweet, almost always happy and smiling angel while Andrea enjoyed helping her friend celebrate. Meeting Macy for the first time was really exciting but I also LOVED seeing my sister again.

Overall, it was a good but busy weekend and well worth it. Thank you Josh, Andrea, Mom, and Dad for the best birthday present ever (flying me to Atlanta). I cannot wait to see Macy and Andrea again soon. (I was hoping to go home in August but plane tickets cost too much!) It is so hard to know both of my precious nieces are growing up so fast while living so far away from me. Aylah is talking SO much and says the funniest things. I continue to talk to her on the phone so she will remember me (She loves to sing to me now too:). The last time I called she all of a sudden said "An Re" like she could not believe she was actually talk to me. SO cute!

This post is so overdue. Just look at the title, my birthday was at the beginning of June and now it is almost August (the hottest month in Texas I have been told). Now that I have had my first taste of 100+ days I know I was not cut-out to live in Texas forever. Although I do not enjoy cold winters in Michigan at least I can bundle up more and my summer is not wasted inside because it is too hot to handle outside.

I now live in house with a very sweet Christian girl, Charity and her dog Lillie. It is Charity's house and she actually had it built. She has scripture painted on the walls in all of the rooms, which I love. I am only 15 minutes away from work and church so it is not too far away.

For a week or two after moving I struggled with a sore throat and extreme tiredness. One Friday after work I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with Mono which explained it all. Taking a week off from work was not fun but all I did was sleep and rest. I never knew how strong Mono was until I got it. I am still sleeping more than usual and tiring out more easily.

On the left is me and John at the Chinese restaurant and on the right is me at the Fort Worth Water Gardens, they were so beautiful.

Before I got sick (and tired) my boyfriend John took me to downtown Fort Worth and Dallas. In Fort Worth we saw the Water Gardens at night which was very pretty. In Dallas we saw the place where former president JFK was shot and learned all about the possibilities of several shooters and where other shots were fired from etc. There were so many beautiful churches in downtown Fort Worth, John is sitting in front of just one of them.

On the left is part of the JFK Memorial and on the right is The Green Monster (a building lit with green lights).

I have been a floater working in all of the classrooms at work. My boss calls me her "everything girl". Working in the baby room continues to be my favorite but I have grown to love all the kids at work. It helps me miss my nieces just a little less. The "politics" of work stink though. I went to the center to apply for the Assistant Director position. Well, I was told I needed to work in a classroom for three months, I started the beginning of March, and that I could apply for the position. The position was recently filled with another teacher at the center and I was never even given the chance to apply. In fact they were training the other teacher on the job for several weeks before even admitting she was training. Needless to say I need to find a better paying job where I will be respected more.

If you have not heard from me lately I would like to blame it on the Mono. I seriously come home and take a nap before dinner most nights. So just give me a call sometime and if you talk to my voicemail I promise I will get back to you, just maybe not the same day.

My trip home this weekend did not work out due to expensive airfare but I am hoping for Christmas now. I never thought I could stand to live outside the state of Michigan for so long!