It's Official...

... I have submitted my applications for Grad School.

I am scared.

I am excited.

I am praying for God's will.

I am overwhelmed with that this could mean. financially. emotionally.

But mostly I am relived.  One step closer.

Join me in praying that God will open and close the door as He sees fit and that I am ok with whatever the outcome is.

Vote for Global Hope

I am pulling all of this from a friend's blog.  BUT I did hear Abby speak at my church on Friday night and I have to say that I was humbled by her, what she is doing and it motivates me.  It makes me want to follow Christ whole heartedly, whatever He has in store for me.

Embedded below is a short video about a ministry of Global Hope Resources, and the work of Abby Tracy in Kampala, Uganda.  The piece is a submission by Sophia Ruvolo to YouTube’s Project: Report contest.

Just last week, Abby came to our church while in the States to speak at our missions festival, and she also spoke in my LIFE class.  Her heart for street children in Kampala is contagious.  God is continuing to bless this work, and one small way that you can help this ministry gain exposure is by watching the video, and then voting for it on Project: Report.

If your browser works as it should, you can simply mouse over the video while it plays, and at the bottom of the clip (while playing) it will offer the opportunity to vote.  If you are not able to vote this way, go to the Project: Report channel on YouTube, click on Vote, search among those videos for ‘Global Hope,’ and you will find the same video.  There you should certainly be able to vote (to the right).

Enjoy the video.  Praise God.  Pray for Abby and the kids.  And vote.

Good Things: Feb 2010

Another month has arrived!  Do you remember being little and waking up and saying "Ribbit, Ribbit" for good luck?  No?  I am the only one -- oops. 

Anyway -- here is my list of good things from February.

1- Snow Day! worked from home :-)
2- Dinner at Moe's w/ Becky -- and it was FREE!
3- Teal and Laurie came to the Gathering.
4- up at 6, out of the house at 7; didn't get home until 10 -- but I survived.  That was good, right?
5- Kanki for dinner!
6- Shrimp Bread from Lucky 32.  It was delicious -- don't judge by the name.
7- Superbowl -- fun time hanging out with friends
8- MEW -- always good to be in the Word
9- dinner @ Chris's with friends
10- I got caught up with life!!!
11- Belle got a new t-shirt.  She looked stylin'. (I'll try to remember to post a picture)
12- Keli kept me calm on one heck of a night :-).  Dinner @ CPK
13- Cookie Delivery Day -- despite starting late, we ended ahead of schedule!
14- took a nap :-) gift from Laura :-)
15- social w/ the MEW girls.  lots of laughter about lists, spam, and other such random things.
16- took a comp day!
17- Chili's with the roomies
18- chocolate milkshake (which I had been craving all day so it just made my day)
19- watched the Olympics -- snowboarders are crazy.  Have you noticed that?
20- lots of fun and random things; lunch @ Carolina Cafe, hanging out with Becky, and dinner to celebrate Doug's bday
21- lots of laughter after a great Baptism service
22- my Inbox didn't explode upon opening up at work!  seriously... I only had 20ish new emails!
23- took a night for ME!!!
24- started writing my essays for my grad school application.
25- lunch w/ Deanna
26- Missions Dinner at church -- awesome to hear from a girl who at 20 raised 50,000 to build an orphange/home for street kids in Uganda. 
27- Glee-ful night w/ the girls from Duke!
28- lots done around the apartment, made me feel good -- now I can hit the ground running for my crazy week ahead!

Quick question -- why do most of my good things center around food?  I need to work on finding good things that aren't food.  That is going to be my goal for this month.

Did you see this?

This is kind of old -- well, maybe even really old.  Forgive me.

BUT, did you see one of my favorite musicians Josh Wilson in the Newark airport?

Well, it made US Weekly!  Nope. Not kidding -- here is the little article.  

Made me smile. 

That being said, there is a rumor amongst my friends that Josh might be our worship leader again this year at the Fort Caswell retreat.  I can only hope... because Josh is awesome!

Where has Jaye been?

Well, that is certainly a great question.  And to be honest, no where extremely exciting, but at the same time all over the place!

What has really taken over my life are Girl Scout Cookies.  I am overseeing the sale in one of my areas and it has quite literally taken over my life.  My Inbox explodes each morning and I try to contain it each day; I have had to plan more things for this cookie sale than I ever thought.  It is just overwhelming. 

Feb 13th was Cookie Delivery Day... and that was definitely my "must get to this moment" day.  Once it was over, everything was moving down hill from there.  DON'T get me wrong -- still much more to do.  But, that was the peak and now we are on the other side.

Just to share with you what cookie delivery day is -- here are some photos.  Keep in mind that this is for just ONE of my areas; but they had 68 troops who need to pick up almost 6000 cases of cookies.  Do you know what 6000 cases of Girl Scout cookies look like?  They look like this:

All of the cases coming off of a FULL semi-truck and a little loading truck. 

Almost all of the cases in the firehouse where we load them into cars.  Yep, that's a lot of cookies.

Anyway, that is just a quick snapshot of how cookies have taken over my life.

Beyond that -- I have added a class at the local community college.  I need it for my pre-req for grad school.  It isn't too bad, but i do have to stay on top of that reading.  Still hanging out with friends, working out in the mornings and Monday Night Bible Study.

All in all, life is good.  I am going to work on the whole discipline thing and updating on a regular basis.  We'll see how that goes. ;-)  Do you have anything specific you want me to blog about?

Photo Coasters

I finally downloaded a bunch of pictures (I had to!  The Mom Creative blogged about an amazing deal w/ snapfish -- 100 free prints!  Couldn't pass up a deal like that!) and now can blog about the other 'crafty' gifts I gave for Christmas.

For my mom and my grandmother I made photo coasters.  I used these directions and I have to say -- I love, LOVE the way they turned out. 

 

What do you think?

Good Things: January 2010

I am totally going to keep up the Good Things Posts.  I think it is a good thing to look back at the month and rejoice over good things...

So, here is goes.  The Good Things for January 2010:

1- getting better at bananagrams!  Went rollerskating and then had 'dinner' at Waffle House
2- yummy Puppy Chow! girly movie time at Angie's!
3- nap! :-) last day of calm before heading back to work
4- I actually made dinner people!
5- got the apartment to myself, always a blessing
6- The Gathering -- we started a new series that I am excited about; got to talk to fun people!
7- started class!  This is going to be weird
8- survived a LONG day at work -- oh, it was pay day!
9- Princess and the Frog w/ Keli
10- lunch @ Salsarita's -- got to eat with some fun people from Sunday School
11- good night at MEW -- good truth and conviction came out of the night
12- God gave me peace: "It will all be ok."
13- bought Wicked tickets!!
14- i had time to study -- it was again like God was speaking directly to me: "I'll provide the time, you provide the discipline"
15- Glee night w/ Katy :-)
16- hang out time w/ Annette!
17- Golden Globes w/ Jenn
18- shopping trip w/ Laura
19- we played Jeopardy in my class -- not even kidding.
20- The Gathering was just plain encouraging.
21- took my test in 11 minutes; still got a 101.
22- no cavaties!!
23- Chad & Reanne get engaged -- fun time with friends celebrating1
24- had to work all day, but I got off early1
25- the video from Beth Moore's study was killer! 
26- productive evening that included a walk, making dinner and get lots done!
27- Fat Daddy's w/ Suzanne
28- despite a lack of planning, my meeting for work went pretty well!
29- fun evening with Laura
30- SNOW!
31- church was cancelled sadly, but it afforded me another lazy and productive day!

Hope everyone had a great January!

Snow!

We've had a little (or a lot) of this today:

That's right! SNOW, here in North Carolina!

Obviously, that isn't my place -- or anywhere near where I am.  I was too lazy to get my camera out to take any pictures of the snow at my place.  Roomie and I did go for a walk in the snow this morning, but since then I have stayed in pjs while being productive.

That's right -- I have been productive today... on a snow day!

I have: cleaned my room, did my Bible Study homework (Beth Moore's Esther study rocks!), finished my reading for class, scrapbooked, organized some photos AND have been getting some work-work done.  I know, I know... it should be a snow day everyday!  I might actually get stuff done from time to time.

While it is nice to have snow, it was kind of a bummer.  My parents were supposed to come and visit today, but the weather prevented them from doing so.  Oh well, hopefully I'll get to see them next weekend!

How was the weather where you are at?

Five Things...

Found this blog which participates in Talking About Thursdays and I thought I would give it a whirl every Thursday.  I need topics to write about from time to time and need motivation.  I have been a bad blogger the last couple of weeks -- mainly because my schedule hasn't dictated much time, but still.  I enjoy blogging and should attempt to do it more often.

Without further ado:  Talking about Thursdays: "Five Things About Yourself."





1. My name is Jaye -- my dad named me and I love my name.  I have only met one other girl Jaye and it makes me feel special that there aren't too many of us in the world.  I used to go by Jaye P. (and still do to those friends who know me as Jaye P.), but for some reason switched to Jaye when I started working.  It would make me happy if you would call me Jaye P.

2. I love Coca-Cola (and will not drink Pepsi) and feel my day isn't complete if I don't drink at least one.  I also love all things sweet and chewy (sour patch kids, sour gummy worms, skittles, etc).  I have at least cut most candy from my diet.  I don't think soday will ever go.  And yes I know how bad it is for me.

3. I am too busy for my own good right now.  Work here at the Girl Scouts has me overwhelmed and yet I am still attempting to take a class for grad school, apply for grad school, hang out with friends and spend time scrapbooking.  Why?  Because i don't want just one thing to rule my life.  However a lack of sleep may soon make me have to choose.  That and not enough getting done.  How overwhelmed I currently feel makes me wonder how moms ever do it.  Is it a gene that gets activated once you become a mom?

4. My plan for when I get out of debt (stupid spending habits) is to save money to travel many places.  On my trips to take list: drive across country; tour the West Coast (fly into San Diego and head north); Australia; New Zealand; Texas... oh and many more.

5. If I could change one thing about myself, I would make it so I have actual musical talent -- but in a way that I could become a 'triple threat' and do musical theater.  When I was young, I would have changed my height (I am tall), but now I am ok with it.  However, I wish I could sing, dance and act.  Instead I love all things musical theater and my current obsession is Glee.  Makes me feel like maybe I could be good to (ha! in my dreams).

Fun Times Ahead!

I've been posting up a storm today!  Just got opinions and fun things to share today!  Guess what broadway show I just bought tickets for?

Here is your hint dead giveaway:



I'm going to see Wicked on May 12th at the DPAC and I can't wait!!!!

Random Articles

I have run across a lot of great articles recently -- most of which I want to share with the blog-world (or just keep the link for someday when I want to re-read them, I really hate when my bookmark list gets too long).  Today's two articles are all about money... or more accurately saving money and getting out of debt.

I make it no secret that one of my biggest long term goals right now is getting myself out of debt.  It is going to be a while before I can yell "I'm Deb Free" from the top of my lungs -- but everyday and every month I am getting closer and closer.  How exciting! 

That being said, when I see articles on MSN or other blogs about this topic, I almost always click on them to see if they have any great (and new) tips.  These two are worth a puruse, if you will.

1) Trick Yourself Into Saving More Mony, msn.com
I liked this article because I saw some tips I hadn't seen -- or maybe more accurately taken notice of lately.  My personal favorite is the "round up extra cash" idea.  I may try this for a month or two... see if the feeling of being strapped for cash is outweighed when I magically have some extra money at the end of each month to put away in savings for grad school or pay down debt.  Does anyone do this?  Do you like it?

2) Cash is King, Johnny B. Truant Blog
I like this article more because I agree with it whole heartedly.  Now that I am using the envelope system for eating out, entertainment, groceries and clothing I feel RICH!   No, really -- I DO!  I am certainly not making any more money or saving it better.  I just can SEE the money and know where it is going.  I feel RICH... and I like that feeling.

And since we are talking about finances and getting out debt -- let me introduce you two new blogs I have found that I like -- both are people/families blogging about their adventures while they go debt free. 

Man vs. Debt
Debt Free Adventure

That's all I got right now folks!  I should do a detailed update on how I am doing with my get out of debt plan.  I am working on two bigger credit card debts right now, so it has been a while since I have reached any great milestones.  But I promise I am still plugging away and I am feeling pretty good about it!

Totes

I thought I would show you one of the crafts I made for people of Christmas.  I made two small totes (modified from the pattern I found here on this blog) for two little girls I know.  I am really happy with how they turned out... and so are the girls!  They loved them. :-)

Very simple and not too much to them -- but they are fun for little girls to use and tear apart. ;-)  I would definitely line them more on the inside if I was to make one for myself, but not too shabby for a first attempt on making a tote for little girls, huh?

Prayer/Encouragement Needed

I have been listening to my "Encourage My Heart" playlist on repeat today and yesterday.

It has been a tough weekend and because this is a VERY public forum, I am choosing not discuss and reveal all of my thoughts here.  Know that I covet prayers for this situation and that God will know exactly what it is you pray for.  It is on my mind constantly, to the point that it has been hard to concentrate at work and get anything done.

I trust the Lord and His plan.  I don't always understand the situations He has in, but I know it is for His glory and as long as I am doing what I feel He has called me to then I am doing ok. 

Thanks friends and blog world.

What makes a good teacher?

On Thursday I start an American History Class at Wake Tech Community College here in Raleigh.  As of today all my references have given me their references to turn into NC State and Meredith.  Why?  Because I want to go back to school, to get my Master's of Education -- specifically an MAT program.

I am a pretty opinonated person.  I'll more than likely tell you what I think -- especially if you ask me to.  If it is something I haven't been asked before I may have to internally process it first, but I will come up with something to say -- well, normally.

One issue that always fires me up (whether you hear about it or not) is education.  What we can do to make it better.  Why it fails.  Why I want to teach.  Why I'll probably end up in administration.  Why my dad now loves to teach.  The best teachers I had and why. 

I want to read more about education -- articles, books, etc.  I find it interesting -- and I think a good education, a good teacher can truly change kids lives.  Education is a chance for many children to become greater than what is expected of them. 

But what makes a good teacher? passion? the right classes on classroom management? a good school? supportive parents? supportive administration?

This article looks at Teach For America, why it is so successful and takes a gander at what makes a good teacher.

It is excites me to read it.  But it also frightens me.  Do I really have what it takes to be a good teacher?  Do I have the grit it talks about?  I hope so -- and as I type this there my heart races and my inner guts says "Yes you do!"  Only time will truly tell... but I hope so.  I inspired by the Mr. Taylor in the article -- and it gives me great ideas on how to be successful in the classroom.

Good Things: December

Hard to believe that this is my last Good Things Post for 2009.  And soon I'll have to start writing 2010 (PS -- how are you saying 2010?  twenty-ten or two thousand-ten?).

All in all, I had a great December, although very introverted.  There is something about the end of the year and cold weather that makes me just want to live in my head and stay in my apartment all the time.  IF I went out to be with people, I definitely forced myself. 

Oh well... good things, December 2009:

1- Introverted Time, caught up on all of my favorite shows
2- Camp Mu-sha-ni for possibly my favorite all day staff meeting -- the camp guys planned it and let us do what we like best... talk and crafts!
3- ...
4- Oasis 414: White Christmas- swing dancing! 
5- SICK... boo!  But I made it better by watching Glee all day
6- cleaned room, relaxed, made sure that awful 24 hour bug didn't come back!
7- fun convo with the roomies
8- made the google group for work.  is there anything that Google can't do well? I submit there is not!
9- Phantom of the Opera!
10- wrapped presents for people!
11- On The Incarnation performance at church-- amazing to be reminded of what Christ coming to this earth means!
12- made purses for the Nieman girls! I really like being crafty!
13- one heck of a productive day! lunch w/ Meredith!
14- MEW social -- I really enjoy my Bibly Study girls
15- productive at work :-)
16- dinner at the Niemans!
17- ...
18- SNOW! in North Carolina! stayed warm on the couch with Rachey
19- crafts! this time I made coasters for the grandma and the mom
20- mailed out the last of my Christmas gifts!
21- played LIFE with some pretty cool kids.  I loved that game as a kiddo!
22- home to Va Beach -- Christmas break began.  WAHOO!
23- slept in!!!
24- didn't have to take a vacation day.  Our CEO gave it to us for free!
25- Christmas.  generous parents. Avatar 3D with the family
26- Christy! The Blind Side! delicious dinner with the Thomas family!
27- Brennan, saw the Rotes, headed back to Raleigh to my BED
28- spent a fortune on iTunes with all of my Gift Certificats... and the best part -- it wasn't even half of what I was given!  Wicked Soundtrack, Jericho CD, lots and lots of singles I have been wanting to buy
29- bought Glee on DVD
30- Breyer's Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.  I allowed myself this treat and it is so worth it!
31- New Year's Eve Girls Night -- amazing!

Happy 2010 friends and blog world!

PS- do you know what I noticed while re-reading this post? I love the exclamation mark.  I may need to stop using it -- it looses its effect when used so much.