Best Husband Ever

I indeed have the best hubby ever. I had a horrible migraine most of the day yesterday. I'm working with Vacation Bible School this week, so I didn't get home until like 10:30. By the time I got home, I was feeling pretty terrible, even starting to get nauseous. So I get home and Joey has made me a bubble bath and said "relax and get rid of that headache" and then he left me alone for a good 30 minutes or so, simply so I could relax and rest my head. The headache didn't go away, but my stomach calmed down and I was able to relax some. After a wonderful bubble bath, I crawled into bed with an ice pack and woke up this morning feeling much better. He's so sweet :-)

"In the Sanctuary"

Today, something really cool happened- God shocked us all! Joey & I overslept and left a little late. But Joey drove to church, so we pulled into the parking lot at 8:15, right on time. As we are passing the sanctuary to park in the back lot of the church, there were a whole bunch of choir/orchestra people standing outside- very odd. My first thought was "are we locked out?" but the doors to the church were open, so that was a no. Then Joey said "I think we have no power." Sure enough, when we walked up the hill, we discovered the church had no power. The power was out for a couple square miles around the church too. We still don't know why, but it was. So it is 8:15 and we have a 9:00 service. So, we are waiting for the pastors to make a decision on what we are going to do. Not having service was, of course, not an option. So the plan changed about four time in three minutes, but the final plan was to have church outside in the parking lot. This presents a few problems for us, namely finding all of the things we need (chairs, music stands, sound equipment, etc) in the dark. Our sanctuary has no windows in it...so this was very difficult. Thankfully, we had some flashlights and were able to prop doors open to get some light. A man who attends the church brought a generator for us to use and we set up a pretty full sound system for the service in the parking lot. It was cool to see everything come together. In the span of about 20 minutes, we went from a parking lot to a sanctuary, including about 400 or so chairs, choir risers, a sound system and an orchestra pit. It was amazing.

Our choir special today was a song called "In the Sanctuary." It basically says we will praise God in the sanctuary because He's worthy of our praises. The cool thing, to me, is that because we couldn't be in the "sanctuary" for worship, God seemed to be telling us that a sanctuary isn't just a building where we meet to "do church." A sanctuary is the place where God's people gather to worship Him. It was great to be outside with trees around us, worshipping God in His sanctuary.

God was good to us. There was a wonderful cloud cover, a gentle breeze and cool temperatures this morning, all kind of rare in June in the south. But it made for a wonderful service. By the end of service, power had been restored and we had the 11:00 service in the building, but I think it was a great lesson to be learned.

I'm so thankful to serve a God who uses all of our situations to teach us things. This was a big God thing for us today. For a church of our size to be "inconvenienced" and made to think on our feet like we did, it was so God. I'm glad the power company had a problem this morning :-)

Blessings!

Update

So I'm so bad at these things. But, here's an update for the three of you who read.

We've been married over five months now....crazy that it's been that long. Married life is great. I love waking up next to Joey every morning and falling asleep next to him each night. I love sharing everything with him. I love not living alone any more. I love being able to love him and spend time with him.

We got our puppy. His name is Rocky and he is adorable. We love him so much! Our families love him too. It's great to have something that relies on you. Here's a picture of him:

He is now almost 7 months old. We just had him neutered this week, so hopefully he won't wander away so much. He likes to wander from the yard, so we have to keep him on his run line right now. We're hoping to get one of those radio fence things so he can come off the line. We'll see how it works.

My kids took their EOCs this week. My children did wonderfully!!! 92% of them passed the test. I only had 5 of my kids fail the test, which is quite impressive. Most of my colleagues had that many in at least one of their classes. So I am extremely pleased with their performance.

Joey and I went to Disneyland with my parents for spring break. We had so much fun! It was Joey's first trip to a Disney park and all but Dad's first trip to Disneyland. It was also Joey & my first trip to California. We had a great time. Spent WAY too much money, but it was really a great time. Here's one of the pics:


I've got one more week of work and then summer vacation begins. I'm looking forward to having the summer off. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. I'll probably do some things around the house & spend some time reading. Hopefully we'll also get to spend some time in Statesville and make a few day trips to do some fun stuff.

Well, I guess that's about it for the update. I'll try to do better now.

we're gonna be parents!

Now that I have your attention...we're getting a puppy!!! Hopefully on Friday we'll bring one home. There is a possibility that our little guy that we fell in love with on Monday won't be there on Friday, but right now our plan is to go pick him up on Friday. We'll post pictures once we get him. And if we don't get him, I'll update that too.

Spring break starts tomorrow at 2:50...can't wait!

Kay Yow

Today, one of the greatest women I've ever read about has passed away. Kay Yow, NCSU women's basketball coach since the 1970s, died this morning after fighting breast cancer since 1987. To put that fight in perspective, she was diagnosed with breast cancer the year Joey was born. She fought it every step of the way. My understanding is that she never let it get her down. Her teams always knew she was behind them. She is an inspiration to so many in this world. She also was an unashamed believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. She knew it was through God's strength that she fought the cancer and beat it so many times. So while it is a sad day here in the Triangle as we mourn her death, I am celebrating the fact that now Coach Yow is in Heaven, worshipping our Lord and Savior. She is no longer sick. She is no longer in pain. She is in her perfected body, doing nothing but worshipping Him. And I imagine if there is a basketball court in Heaven, when we all get there, that is where we will find her. Rest in peace, Coach Yow. Thank you for your example of faith, persistance and courage. You will be missed.

Update

Hello! Things aren't much different from the last time I updated. We're a little more unpacked. And we've hung pictures and shelves and stuff in the living room, so it looks more like a home.

We had a big snow this past week that canceled the two days of school the students would have had this week. It was pretty for a day, then it got annoying. Joey and I walked about a mile down the road or so to see what it was like on the roads. It was pretty impassable for the average car that first day. The second day was much better, so he took me out to lunch to cure my stir-craziness. So this means we're two days behind at school. And our wonderful county plans for us to make them up on the Thursday and Friday of spring break. I won't be there and already have arranged for a sub.

Why won't I be there? Because we're going to Disneyland (in California) for spring break. My parents were planning to go and we realized that it was going to cost us less than $1,000 to spend a week there, so we decided to splurge and go. It'll be a lot of fun. Joey has never done any Disney stuff and I've never been to Disneyland, so we're really excited.

The new semester starts on Wednesday. It looks like I have a good bunch of kids, so hopefully it'll be a good semester. The kids have a big state test at the end of the semester, so this will be a true test of my teaching ability. Yikes! But the teachers I work with have done this all before and have a plan. And I love plans :-) So it should be fine.

Well, I guess that's about it. Have a wonderful day!

New Life

It's great! I am absolutely loving being married. We are so happy and love living together. I realized how much I loved it when Monday morning we got up together and we were in the kitchen packing lunches together. It was great. We are both adjusting to living with someone, but it's a pleasant adjustment.

The wedding went well. The ceremony was great and beautiful. Everyone has complemented us on our original ideas. The reception was fun. Short but fun. We had some small problems with stuff, but otherwise it was great. My only regret is that we didn't get to talk to everyone, but hopefully everyone understands.

It was such a blessing to see everyone who was there. For those of you who were there, thanks so much for being part of it.

And now, I'm legally a Totherow, which is so exciting. Soon I'll have my new license and we'll merge bank accounts. All of this is so exciting. I love creating a family of our own (NOT children yet). It's so cool to call Joey my husband!

My first semester at South is wrapping up. I've really enjoyed my time there. The kids, teachers and administration is great. I don't know how many of my kiddos I'll have back next semester, but it's going to be fun!