Singing...

I have rehearsal tonight for the church worship group I sing with, and I absolutely LOVE it.

They're such great people, who make me feel so welcome, and it's a chance for me to do something with my talent (graciously given to me by God). What better to do with my voice then help lead others in praise? I like to feel involved in the church. It's hard for me to go to church when I feel like I don't have any connections there. I feel like an outsider, even after I've been going there a while. Living Hope Church here in Monterey has been a bit of a different experience for me, more like my first church experience at Greentree. And it's been so nice to have that feeling again, that feeling that I belong there and have a purpose there.

We're also singing my favorite song this weekend: Above All.

"Crucified, laid behind the stone,he lived to die rejected and alone. Like a rose, trampled on the ground, he took the fall, and thought of me, above all..."

Makes you think.

February is National Embroidery Month!

Who knew? I only recently discovered my love of embroidery. I've been cross-stitching for a while, but had never really tried embroidery. Then, in December I believe, I decided (on a whim) to try it.

In a lot of ways it's easier than cross-stitching, you don't have to have a pattern out in front of you because it's already on the fabric (you can buy the fabric printed, or you can trace (or draw) your pattern on yourself), and the colors are completely up to you!

If you enjoy sewing take a whack at it, you never know if you're going to like something until you try it!

*I have no idea why the picture is so stinking HUGE! I made it as small as possible, but for some reason or other this is the size. This is my current bird embroidery, I have four done, and eventually will have enough to quilt a throw blanket! I can't wait!*

Being Still

We talked about rest today in church, and it took me back to the verse (the pastor mentioned it also) Psalms 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God"

I have a really hard time being still. I like to know whats happening and how I can do something to further or hinder the situation (only hinder if it's something bad, of course!). It makes me crazy to not know what to do, or how to handle something. But, that's not my job. My job is to leave it up to God, and to go with my gut (could also be referred to as my conscience I suppose).

There used to be all kinds of crazy Sabbath rules, and I'm very glad that those no longer apply. One of them was that you couldn't walk in your garden on the Sabbath! I like my walks, they're very relaxing. They bring me... rest.

So, I'm going to keep working on being still, and leaving things up to God. 22 years down and oh so many more to go before I maybe have a chance at getting this right!

I have my classes all figured out!

I added my last class today. Yay.

I went in early to talk to the professor, and she told me that I was in luck and someone had just dropped! I'm glad I went in early because SIX (count that, six!) people came in during the class to try to add.

So now my schedule is:
Tues/Thurs: Ballet
Weds: Costuming
Also Thurs: Stage Makeup

All in all, a pretty good schedule to defer my loans.

And, it doesn't seem like any of these is going to be terribly hard. Ballet is difficult physically, but she's grading on attendance so that's not a problem.

Now, onto the job front, hopefully that will also be taken care of soon!

Class Canceled?

So, it's day one of my "first" semester of college, and one of my classes is completely canceled, which means I have to find something else to take the place of that class. I was hoping to find something that wasn't going to put me over six units, but there's very little in the way of two unit classes...ergh.

Ballet was fun though, and I definitely won't be needing to work out in the morning before I go to that class. I think I'm really going to enjoy it!

Tomorrow costuming starts! That's the one that I'm really looking forward to. It's going to be great to supplement all the things I learned at Point Loma with the classes here that weren't offered at Loma.

Back to the hunt for the ever illusive two unit class.

So I have been sucking at blogging!

I'm really going to work on it, I swear.

To recap everything I didn't post about:

Christmas: It was a lot of fun, but there were definitely some stressful times too. Switching back and forth between two different houses was a little more complicated than we hoped it would be. We wanted to make sure that we were able to spend equal time with both of our families, but that meant that it felt like we missed out on a lot with each of them too.
I did, however, get an awesome Christmas present. My parents got me the Clarisonic Mia. Which I absolutely love. It's definitely making the skin on my face healthier, and I'm hoping that, with more time, it will help clear the acne that I just cant seem to get rid of.

Visitors: We've had quite a few visitors since we cam home from Christmas. First Nathan's sister Becca and her boyfriend Zach came to stay with us for a weekend. Unfortunately it rained pretty much the whole time. There was one good morning, so we took a walk (a seven or eight mile walk) all around Monterey to show them the sights. Then this last weekend my girlfriends from home came to stay for the weekend. And we took over the living room with all of our scrapbooking materials. It was a great weekend though, since we don't get to spend tim with each other too often.

And now back to the present:
I made a lunch bag for myself today out of a tea towel! Since I start my new classes tomorrow (Yay for deferring student loans you can't afford to pay!) I needed something to bring my lunch in. The classes that I'm taking are not going to be too difficult (ballet, stage movement, and costuming) but I'm looking forward to having something to do. And to getting a job on the campus to give us a little bit more of an income.

Nathan and I have been married for just over six months now, and I can positively say that these have been the greatest six months of my life. He's wonderful, and I am so excited to love him for the rest of my life. I could not have asked for a better man, I've been utterly blessed.

*An Edit: I just went back to look at my posts, and I am sad to say that I did not complete NaNoWriMo, but there's always next year, and I still am working on my story, just not as quickly as the contest called for!*

NaNoWriMo

is taking over my newlywed life! I'm already behind on my word count, which is probably not good since I need to have 50,000 words by the end of the month. Eep.

For those that don't know NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. A group of people started it a few years ago, and the challenge is to write a complete novel (of 50,000 words) in one month. You can come in with outlines and characters, but you can't have any actually writing done on the novel. That, my friends, would be cheating. It's a lot of fun, but it's also completely stressful. I feel like I'm definitely going to have a few nights towards the end of lots of caffeinated tea and late late (or early early) bedtimes.

My story is about a girl who stows away on a plane to London, lives in Hamley's (a toy store) and pickpockets the shoppers for food money.

So far I haven't hit my word goal for any day, but darn it, I will persevere!