Work, future, and family

Since I have been working at Watson Chapel School District I have learned a lot. I have espcially learned to get a lot of things done in a shorter time than what I am use to. This has helped me to better prepare for whatever God has planned for my futute in whatever job I will land for a full time job. This will go done as the best job I have ever had up to this point in my life. I am also looking forward to finishing my masters degree next year and getting start work on my doctoral degree in higher education administration. I am also looking forward to the end of the month when I finally find out what is wrong with my dad. This will be our third trip of many to come to the Mayo clinic. Years ago I would have blamed God for what was going on, but know I look to Him for even more guidance than ever. I pray harder than I have ever done, and I thank all of you for praying for me and ask to continue to. I look forward to growing closer to God and with that it will help me continue to grow with Brittany. We have grown so much closer together in the last couple years than I thought we would have ever been able to. May God continue to bless all you.

Glory be to God

I am starting out my Lenton season by praising God and thinking of all of the things that he has done for Brittany and me. He has brought us through many struggles and many things that most people would not even see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have learned that if we keep God as the other person in our relationship that we will be in great shape. My favorite bible verse talks about how love is patient and kind. This verse is found in Corinthians. We had that verse read at our wedding, you might wonder why I am talking about love. I am talking about love because it is the greatest thing that God has given us. We are even told to love our enemies by Jesus. So during this lenton season I am wanting to grow my spiritual love, espcially those that I do not always give the attention and respect that is given. I am also going to try to give up sodas during this time and loose about 20 pounds. So as I prepare my self I will be doing a lot of praying and listening to get guidence on life and to see were my career path will take me. May God bless all of you and continue to watch over you.

Weight Loss

My goal since I have been married has been to loose weight. I need to loose over 100 pounds. My goal is to be at least 80-90 pounds lighter by February 8 2011. That will give me one year to loose the weight. I am asking all of my friends and family to help me out. Call me or email me to make sure that I am sticking to my diet and exercise program. I am going to do it and I know with all of your help and support and having God in my corner, I will look and feel better before I know it.

Friends

I have decided to blog on my friends. I have met a lot of people since I have left my hometown of Pocahontas, which is in northeast Arkansas. My first semester of college I was lucky to meet some great people through a club and in the resident hall I lived in. Some of the people I met was Mike Ruhl, Aaron Crow, Ms. Judy, Mrs. Rosemary, Josh Pipenger, Kris Spencer and a lot of great teachers and other people. Everyone one that I came into contact with at ASU-Beebe will always have a special place in my heart. That is also the place that I would meet my wife Brittany. I also met Leah there a great person that I considered to be a sister I never had before. After my two years at junior college at ASU-Beebe, which those were great years, I went on to attend ASU-Jonesboro. There it was a little harder to met people that I could call friends. Then I got a big break and started to work for ASU reisdence life as a community assistant. There I met some great people that I still try to keep in conctact with. A couple of these people Colleen Christensen, Jenny Goldman, and Sherkea Garfield are all great people I got to work with, I consider all three of them my sisters. Some of them even helped me prepare the night that I asked Brittany to marry me, and for that I am very grateful.

I also wanted to say to the friends that I have not done a great job of keeping in contact with I am sorry. I also would like to say to my friends that have stopped maybe talking to me, answering my phone calls, or even a post on facebook, forgive me if I have offended you in anyway that you do not want to talk to me anymore. I love all my friends you all hold great places in my heart and I will never forget any of you.

American Education

I wanted to touch on two different aspects of American education. One from higher education and the other from elementary school.

Let me start with the higher education. I subscribe to the Chronicle of Higher Education. On the front page, and continues on to three more pages, about a young man at University of Notre Dame. He went to visit the schools president, who is also a priest, and told him that he had lost his touch with God. After a long talk the young man felt better about it. The student said that he lost his touch with God after he had taken a lot of his classes for his biology degree.

The second story is one that has been going on for a while. It is about a little boy who has been put into in school suspension for long hair. To me that is ridiculous. I work in a school environment and see students with long and short hair and it does not seem to bother anyone. I do not know what to think of an education system that allows students to sit in a class a long time and be distracting, but as soon as a four year old boy has semi long hair that is not acceptable. So to me that is ridiculous.

God is Great

I know that most of the time we can feel that God is not there. That is not true, to me after a long time of thinking about it I believe that is when He is the closest. We have to allow ourselves time to slow down and look at the big picture and then we will see that God is in control and He is always there. There were even times that I would question why God would let things happen. Now I just let things happen and know that God is my corner. God has helped Brittany and me so much and He has given us a great life with great family and friends, who we love dearly, to share it with. Yesterday I was at a older gentlemens house helping him with computer, I have been out there several other times since I have lived here. I have not always enjoyed meeting with him, but after several visits he told me that he is happy to have me as a friend. I looked past the man that I first met and saw a man who was glad to have another friend. So back to what I was saying, yesterday as I was leaving his house I left him with a rosary that I have had for about 3 years, he was very happy and you thought he had just won the lottery with the big smile on his face. I have learned a lot from him and everyone else that I have come in contact with over the years. God Bless everyone and Brittany and me wish all of you a happy new year.

Fort Worth Trip

During the week of December 28- January 1 Brittany and me took a trip to Fort Worth Texas. On Monday the 28th Brittany and me departed Walnut Ridge Arkansas at 3:30am, we were suppose to leave at 12:30am, only three hours late leaving. We arrived at Fort Worth at 2pm, we were only 30 minutes late arriving in Fort Worth. We went out to Macaroni Grill that night.

The next day on Tuesday the 29th we visited with Janet Bradley, a lady who has mentored Brittany since she was in the 10th grade, at the Natural Resource Conservation Services Central National Office. We went out to eat lunch with her at a place called Joe's Pizza and Pasta which was located not far from our hotel. If you are ever in Fort Worth you need to go by there, it is the best little Italian place I have ever been to. That night Brittany and me went to Medieval Times in Dallas, we had a blast there. This was my second time to medieval times, and Brittanys first time there.

On Wednesday December 30th we stayed in the hotel that morning and rested. That night we went to the Texas Christian University campus and watched the mens basketball team play against Northern Colorado University. The TCU men lost by 11 points.

On Thursday December 31st we attended the Armed Forces Bowl with Houston playing Air Force Academy. Air Force would win the game 41 to 20. We had a great time at the game, even though it was very cold and rainy. We had fajita nachos and left the game a little early to catch a bus to go visit my cousins, Cathy and Richard who are live in McKiney Texas, at the Stockyards. They gave us a ride back to our hotel.

On Friday January 1st we went to church in Fort Worth. After church we went back to the hotel and grabbed our bags and went to the train station. While we were waiting on the train to get there we ate at Subway that was right beside our station. We departed Fort Worth at 2:40 that afternoon. We arrived back at Walnut Ridge at 1:45am. We had a great trip and had two great Taxi drivers in Dan and Robert. That taught us a lot about Fort Worth and Dallas area.

We are now at home doing laundry and getting ready for work on Monday. We wish everyone a happy new year.