Thursday, April 7, 2011

MIA?

Hello again fellow bloggers/readers! Wow...it's been over a month since I've blogged. March was a very busy month for me. In the spring semester, March = Midterms = lots of grading! (especially when you have 8 classes) My best friend got married, and I was so honored to be her Maid of Honor. The wedding was a great celebration of their love and union. I couldn't be happier for the newly weds! I had a blast participating in all the wedding festivities. During the Mardi Gras holidays, I spent my time visiting family and working on school stuff. I also spent a little bit of time on my favorite hobby - scrap booking! Every weekend was booked with something, but it was all good, fun things - my mother's bday party, West Side Story, and a wedding shower to name a few.

HOUSE update: Well, to be honest with you, there is nothing to update. We are currently waiting for houses to come on the market. Although there have been some moments where we have felt impatient, I think I'm finally ok with the waiting. An advantage of waiting is that my trip to Africa is now 5 weeks away, and I couldn't imagine being in the middle of trying to purchase/move into a new home when I'll be gone for 2 weeks. So updates on the house I'm sure will come after my mission trip.

AFRICA update: 5 weeks and 1 day and counting. Last week was our first training. I must say, when I left the meeting I had a mix of emotions. I was refreshed with the sense of excitement, nervous about all the traveling, sad about re-realizing I'll be leaving my hubby for 2 weeks (we haven't been apart much since we are married), but SO happy to be a part of this amazing mission opportunity. As I sat at the table, I thought, wow...God called someone like me to travel to Africa to serve, pray, and encourage the people of Africa. What a privilege!

During worship time at church this past weekend, God brought to my mind Be Still. This semester has been the busiest and most trying semester since I've been teaching. I THOUGHT I was a flexible teacher, but I learned a whole new meaning to that word. I'm very grateful for this semester though, because now I know what I can handle and how to handle certain situations. It has definitely been a growing time in my professional world. I'm looking forward to this mission trip, just for the fact that I will be able to Be Still. I am not particularly looking forward to 16 hour plane rides and 8-12 hour bus rides, but what an opportunity for life to slow down. The semester will be over and work will not be on the brain. My prayer right now is that I use these opportune times to focus on God, take it all in, and grow as a person and spiritually.

Prayer request: The team continues to stay healthy and that our immune systems stay strong, the team continue to bond over our trainings, the families of the team members - give them peace while we are gone, that we would be sensitive about what God wants us to do.

Thank you for the prayers!
Miche

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Like Totally RADICAL

AFRICA: I received my passport in the mail! I can not believe how fast it took - 2 weeks. I have no idea how I got my passport so fast because I didn't pay for a quicker service. Praise God that I had no troubles with my passport. Tonight is our first team training, and I'm so excited to learn more about the mission trip and the people I will be going with. This weekend I plan on beginning my journal for this mission trip. I have always kept a journal during a mission trip, but never my thoughts before the trip. You can see a picture of the cover below. My amazing Mother-In-Law gave it to me as part of my Christmas gift.



In preparation for the mission trip, I have decided to read "Radical" by David Platt. I'm hoping that after reading this book that I am radically changed (Radical defined as favoring extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions, or institutions). My goal is to read at least a chapter a week. There are nine chapters in the book and this week I read chapter 1. Wow...I feel challenged already. This is my favorite quote from the chapter, "My biggest fear, even now, is that I will hear Jesus' words and walk away, content to settle for less than radical obedience to him." I do not want to settle for less! Obeying him can be so difficult, but we make it difficult. Why are we so afraid to take that step out of our comfort zone and obey him? Reasons: Fear. I'm not good enough. What will people think? Etc. Should any of this matter if that's what Jesus called you to do? By not obeying we are settling for less. Ouch. This is something that I struggle with on a daily basis. Also this chapter reminded me of the cost to chose to follow Jesus. I won't go into detail about this topic. I'll let you read the book for the details. :)

It's Like Finding a Wedding Dress...

HOUSE update: Travis and I have looked at about eight houses, if not more - in person. We were interested in one particular house and visited the house for a second time. After viewing the house more closely, we decided it wasn't meant for us. I was feeling pretty discouraged after viewing the house that night. I think I was just overwhelmed with school stuff and trying to find a home at the same time. Before we left the house, we had a good talk with our Realtor, and I felt so refreshed about the situation. Finding a house is like finding a wedding dress. You just know when it's the right one. :) So we had agreed to take at least a week off from looking at houses so that I could play catch up on my school work.

During the week, a beautiful house was emailed to Travis and I and we were VERY interested. The week was over and I am less stressed, so Travis and I decided to give it another shot at looking at houses (which will be Saturday!). We contacted the realtor to schedule an appointment to see this particular house only to realize that the house is ALREADY under contract. My heart was broken. I started to blame myself and play the what if game. What if I hadn't taken this week off to catch up on school stuff? Could we have been the ones to have the house under contract? Driving home during my 40 min commute, I had a good cry and talk with God. I really needed that break from house hunting in order to do school stuff, for this is a very trying semester for me, but why did the house go under contract SO quick - less than a week!? So I quit playing games and FINALLY gave it to God, in my car waiting in Huey P. Long bridge traffic, in the sense that if we are meant for that particular house, the contract will fall through and we will get a shot at it. (of course we would look at it in person first) If the contract does go through, then I know that God has a different house for us. Amazing how the burden lifts as soon as you give it to God. The pressure is off of me for finding THE perfect house. It's like finding a wedding dress, you know when you find it. I know we have a house out there, and in time, we will find the home God intended for us to purchase.

Below is a pic of me the moment I found my wedding dress. I was so happy to have found it. It wasn't the first, second, or third dress I tried on. I went to a few places, tried on quite a few dresses, but when I found it, I didn't want to try on another dress. When you find it, you just know it!

Monday, February 14, 2011

But the greatest of these is LOVE

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." I Corinthians 13:13

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! I hope each one of you feel loved today, and that you each share some love. :) I felt love today from a stranger - they let me into traffic. So I decided to share the love and do the same for another vehicle later down the line. Which is a big deal to me, especially when there is a lot of traffic. :) (One day, I'll get patience down when it comes to traffic.) I'm a firm believer that we don't NEED a particular day in order to express our feelings. We shouldn't take our love for someone for granted. We definitely should be expressing how much our friends, family, and/or significant others mean to us from time to time. But I'm also not against a day that is specially set aside to tell people that you love them. I am looking forward in spending quality time tonight with my husband. - No distractions, no school work (all books left in my office!). We will be doing one of our favorite things together - cooking and eating! :D Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo is on our menu tonight with a Chocolate Fondue for dessert! Jealous? You should be. ;) How are you spending Valentine's Day today? Or sharing the love?

AFRICA update: I almost have all my funding for the mission trip! It's been amazing watching God work. I am SO thankful for the support of my family and friends for my mission trip. I have also become very emotional each time I open up a letter. God is definitely working on my heart. I have submitted my application for my passport, and I am currently waiting the 4-6 week period for my passport to arrive in the mail. Submitting my application went very quickly. In fact, I think it took me longer to ride the elevator than to review and submit the paper work. Also, next week will be my first team training meeting. I'm really excited about starting the trainings!

HOUSE update: My husband and I have looked at houses twice now - a total of 7 houses. There is a forerunner out of the 7, and I REALLY like the house. In fact, we are going see the house once more on Tuesday. Our current position is praying for direction on wither we should put a bid on the house, or wait for more houses to come onto the market. We've got our reasons for both choices.

I'm hoping to post more blogs in the future, that are not just about updates. (More like some of my older posts) But school has really gotten me bogged down this semester.

Keep living in love!
-Miche

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Taking It Easy


As you can see in the picture, Travis and I took a small cruise vacation this past weekend to Cozumel. We had a great time taking it easy and relaxing. This was our late anniversary celebration. In short, we lounged by the pool, ate to our hearts content, took advantage of 24 hr frozen yogurt machines, enjoyed some entertainment on the ship, and enjoyed the presence of another couple that joined us for vacation. Check my facebook if you want to look at more pics. I love playing tourists!

SEMESTER update: Since my last post, I've picked up another class. Yep, another class. I am REALLY at my max this semester. Here's my break down: 1 lecture, 4 electronic, 3 online, and managing the tutoring lab. I am being very challenged this semester. I've quickly learned to be flexible this semester. You have to be when trying to teach in a computer lab and the computers/internet go down and the copy machine is broken all in the same class period. I now have a plan b and am currently working on a plan c. But I won't go much more into detail with my classes. Hate to bored all my readers out there. :) I'm very thankful that God has blessed me with the gift of teaching and a job that I love! I know that all these extra classes are only for a season, but I'm so thankful for God in providing the extra income to put towards student loans.

AFRICA update: I have taken all of my shots needed for the trip, although I'm not complete done with shots. I will be following up on the Hepatitis A shot in 6 months to complete the series. My doctor was also kind enough to prescribe a few meds in case I get nauseated or diarrhea. Better safe than sorry! I am very thankful that my doc is looking out for me, because I didn't even think of something like that. This week I will be applying for my passport. Prayer Request: God please let the process be smooth and quick. I will be cutting it close with the time issue. Thank you to all my supporters out there who are following along. :D

HOUSE update: Travis and I met with our relaters, whom are sisters. The meeting went very well, and I feel very comfortable with them. We were able to get to know each other a little bit, and narrow down our search for a house. This Saturday, our relaters have lined up 6 houses for us to see. I'm pretty excited, since this will be the first time we will be looking at houses - in person! We may find THE house or we might not. Either way, I'm looking at this experience as a win win situation. Why? Because I will learn more about what type of house I want to live in.

Until my next update...
Keep living in love,
-Miche

Monday, January 17, 2011

Spring Semester 2011

First, Happy Martin Luther King day!

"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.” -MLK.

I used to not really care about this particular day. I was just happy to have the day off of school! But now that I am older, I now know and understand the amazing words this man spoke. May we all try to live with love and treat all people with equality.

This past Saturday marked the beginning of my Spring Semester 2011. I must say that I am pretty excited about this semester. I'm making some major changes to my face to face classes. This semester I'm piloting (testing) an electronic math class. I'll be trying out this new and upcoming trend with 3 of my math classes. Basically, I will meet with my class, just like I would in a regular lecture class, except we meet in a computer lab. I will only lecture about 20 min a day versus the entire 50 min or 80 min. The rest of the period, my students will log-in to a special math website to begin practicing what I just lectured on. It's a great website that has lots of help buttons for the student, and the best part in my opinion, is that it gives immediate feedback! In other words, the student knows as soon as they click submit whether their answer is right or wrong. During this "lab time" I will also be walking around and helping the students out. I'm excited to start the class this week with some basic orientations on the computer. Keeping my fingers crossed that there will not be many computer or log-in problems. I'll be comparing my results at the end of the semester with my pass/fail ratio from my 2010 spring classes. I think this electronic class will benefit the students greatly. I guess we will see in May! I am also teaching 3 online math courses this semester. I know most of you are like how do you teach math online?! Well, the website/program we use for the electronic classes we also use for the online courses. Again, it's a great friendly user program for the students and instructors. I assign my students lecture videos - a teaching explaining the basic concept and a problem first, then after a student watches the video they can have access to homework/practice problems. Of course questions arise of, well how do you know the student is actually doing the work and not someone else. I don't! lol BUT, my students must come to campus twice during the semester to take a Midterm and Final exam - with is worth at least half of their grade. So that's how I can make sure the student (and not someone else) passes the course. Looking forward to a great semester! (and hopefully a successful one!)

AFRICA update: I got my Tetanus shot on Friday. The shot wasn't bad at all, but I must say that my arm is still a little sore. I'm currently waiting for my last two shots to arrive at the pharmacy so that I can pick them up and report to my doctor to get my last two immunizations in my body. I also got my perscription for my Malaria medicine. I'm happy to report that insurance kicked in nicely for this med. I also picked up a bottle of B-12 vitamins to take sometime before and during my trip. Trying to be precautions and stay healthy as much as possible. I'm also having a great time writing Thank You notes on my super cute animal print notes! Again, thank you all who are supporting me with my mission trip either through prayer or finances. It means SO much to me! I just get so excited inside when I talk or write about the trip.

HOUSE update: Travis and I met with a possible lender, and were pre-approved! We got our credit scores run for the first time ever and were happy to learn that our credit is good. I learned a lot in the meeting and was very satisfied with the lender. She was extremely helpful and willing to work with us and our particular needs. She kept things practical and real with our budget. That's exactly what I wanted! Tonight Travis and I will be meeting with a realtor for the first time. We've been in contact through email for the past couple of weeks, but I'm excited to finally meet in person and talk about a future home. They have been sending us emails about once a day of homes for sale that are in our price range. It has been fun shopping online and seeing possible houses. I know that online pics don't do a house justice, but it is nice to eliminate some homes just from the info listed. I'm really happy that we are not rushing anything, but at the same time we do have a deadline - so we don't get too laxed with it all!

Keep living with love!
-Miche

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Let the Hunting Begin!

A new year has embarked, and I just can't believe how fast time flies as you get older. I remember when I was young hearing older people say this phrase. Well now I'm actually experiencing it. This past Monday, I celebrated my 2nd anniversary with my amazing husband! I can remember our wedding like it was yesterday.

I had a great holiday celebrating with friends and family. During the holiday, I celebrated my 27th birthday with dinner at Copeland's and Celebration in the Oaks with my family (on my birthday eve) and eating at The Broken Egg, Hobby Lobby shopping (I love that store!), and a Sucre cupcake all with my hubby on my actual birthday. I'd also like to thank Santa for my awesome cool pix camera. I hope YOU had a wonderful holiday season as well.

There are two big events that will be occurring in my life in 2011:
1. As most of you already know, my mission trip to Africa with the Vineyard church.
2. Travis and I have begun the process of searching for a house to purchase.

AFRICA: I have found out that I have taken one of the shots that I need already when I was in high school, but I still have 3 more shots to go. I have also written and mailed out support letters. I am trusting God that He will provide financially to make the trip possible for me. I also need prayer support, so if you are reading this and would like to support me, please pray as my team and I prep for the trip. Our first team meeting is in February. I'm so excited to get started. I also got a few things for Christmas to help me prepare for the long plane ride - a book light, a few books (thanks Travis for the Zambia one!), a journal with elephants on the cover, and the cutest stuffed elephant ever (Ellie Horton McClain) to comfort me at night. Bad news, I can't begin the process for my passport until the first week in February because I need my birth certificate for the end of January for a cruise that Travis and I booked 6 months ago (our big celebration of our anniversary). I'm praying that all my paper work will go smoothly and quickly so that I get my passport in time.

HOUSE: Travis and I have been saving every month in order to have a down payment on a house. Well, we have finally reached our goal and have decided that this is the time to begin the process of purchasing our first home! I'm very excited and so overwhelmed with that statement. We are hoping to be in a house by this August. We have contacted a relater and tonight we are meeting with a lender for pre-approval. So as you can see, we are definitely in the beginning stages. Lots of stuff to do, but it has been fun hunting for houses on the internet!

I'm excited about the new year! I've got changes to my job that will be happening this semester (but I'll save this topic for another blog..), and big changes in my life that will occur - due to my two big events! Thank you God for a great 2010! I'm looking forward in seeing what He is going to do in my life for 2011.

What are you looking forward to in the year to come?!