SLACKER>>>>>> 5 MONTHS IN 550 Seconds

#FAIL

My goal of blogging my transition from Tulsa to Nashville did not pan out since I have been here 5 months with no new posting........ can you say SLACKER???

So here is the last five months in 550 seconds (~9 minutes )

**note speed varies by reading rate of reader and 550 seconds was mainly for alitieration

1. Stayed with the Wonderful Joy and Peter for a bit and learned all about what it takes to become new parents. You two are the best!

2. Started my JOB at Fairview Middle School, it has been a wild ride, but love it! Helped Coach the volleyball team and realized I am too nice to be a coach. :)

2. Stayed with the Wonderful Becka and Brandon for a longer bit and learned about diners, drive ins and dive. Thanks guys!

3. Joy and Pete had their baby... Naomi Raine Hayes.. who is now o

ne of my new favorite people. :)

4. Moved into my apartment with my new roomie Michelle and her dog Baylee. Michelle bakes wonderful treats especially her cupcakes with the icing inside.

5. My furniture and Rowdy arrived to be here with me in Nashville thanks to my uncle!

6. Met lots of cool people and got involved in a church.

7. Went to Atlanta for a weekend trip to six flags.

8. GRE here I come......Dec. 4th!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH

There is tons more that has happened and lots of great stories, but alas time them would take forever.

The main thing is I know this is where I am suppose to be at this moment and God has it all in his hands. Deeper thoughts on the move will come soon....maybe depending on how my slackerness goes. :)

11 Days.....Soak It Up!

So I officially have 11 days left in Tulsa.... I can't believe it.This has been my home for six years.

For the past couple months I have had a little list of things I want to do in town before I leave. Here it is: (the ones with the word check next to them have

been completed)

1. Go to a Drillers Game check (but i want to go a

gain on fireworks night)

2. Run on Riverside 3 more times.

3. Go to the Admiral Twin Drive In

4. Go the the Great American Flea Market

5. Read book outside Coffee House on Cherry Street while drinking watermelon ice tea check

6. Go to the center of the universe....( I can't believe I still haven't been there.)

7. Go visit my friends at Dolce Vita Coffee shop check ****(While I tried but apparently they closed down. I was really sad. They are a wonderful couple.)

8. Eat at Lanna Thai one more time.

9. Go thirfting. Check

10. Walk around ORU just for old times sake. (Yea I know that is cheesy, but it won't be so close anymore!)

11. Go inside that cool vintage furniture store JOZ and dream I could afford to buy something.

12. Take pictures with as many Penguins as possible and take a picture of that big tooth outside that one dentist's office.

13. Spend as much time as possible with the people here that I love and have grown attached to.

You know who you are! More to come on that topic.......

14. These are the things I wish I could do but probably won't happen..... go to a Tulsa Hockey Game, go line dancing one last time, go to some kind of even at the BOK, see Garth Brooks randomly, go to a concert at Cain's, eat at that cute Italian restruant on Cherry street and visit bricktown in Oklahoma City.

Hopefully I can finish the list! We shall see!!! :)

Blank Bulletin Board

Friday June 3, 2010

was my last official day as a teacher at Jones Elementary School.

It was very bittersweet.

I felt like I spent the whole week saying goodbye. Packing up my classroom and cleaning things out. Some of my students did not show up the last day of school. I never even got to say goodbye.

I am sure they will be fine. It is probably just me that needed the closure.

That morning I stood in my empty classroom looked at the blank bulletin board and just cried.

I thought so many things in those twenty minutes.

Did I really do all that I could for those kids? Will they remember the things I taught them about being kind and loving people. Will the next teacher love them as much as I tried to love them. Will this room keep growing happy memories? Should I be staying? I am running away or just moving on? Will the kids I work with next need me as much as these did? Will I ever see them again? Will I ever find out if they made it? Did I make a difference at all?

And then I didn't know what else to do.... I just prayed. I prayed that the room would continue to be a safe place for students. That God would be known in that room. That the next teacher would find strength and be encouraged. I prayed so many things.

Then... I felt a peace. I knew that my time was over there. That God has those kids in his hands. I did what I was suppose to do in that season. The fear of the unknown could not stop me.

Jones Elementary will forever be a part of me. The people I worked with are such beautiful people. I learned so much there. I will miss my Jones family and students so much.

Falcon Transformation

So.... I officially have a job in TN.

I will officially be a 6th grade special education teacher at Fairview Middle School.

Home of the Falcons!

Here is the link to the website.... if you want to check it out. --> Falcon Country

Here are some cool things about the school.

1. It has a softball team.

2. It has a yearbook club.

3. I think the principal looks just like how my friend Peter might look in thirty years. Joy and him may disagree. But take a look below and make your own opinion.

Ok now on to the next adventure of finding somewhere to live......

Timeline................

So the past three weeks have been a whrilwind of activity....here is a brief timeline in the next couple of post I'll go into more detail.......... wanted to give you an overall picture first.

April 3 - I create a blog on my decision to move to Nashville and began applying for jobs all over the area.

April 6- I began getting emails from principals and a call from the school districts to come interview.

April 8- I get an email from a school in the Dominican Republic needing a special education teacher. (confusion sets in)

April 8-19- I continue emailing back and forth with principals from both Nashville and the Dominican Republic. My brain really begins go crazy and I can't pray enough.

April 20- I meet with my financial advisor and it sort of looks that maybe the D.R. really could be a possibility.

April 21- I drive to Nashville, thinking and praying for ten hours.

April 22- 10 am interview with the school district in Nashville, goes very well

11:45 interview with principal in Nashville, goes well

1:00- interview with another principal in Nashville goes very very well and I like the job a lot.

2:30-finally eat lunch and am sooooo confused. Began to get even more confused for the rest of the night. (Spend wonderful time with Peter, Joy, and Squirrel)

April 23-24 Go to a national special education conference in Nashville. Spend the whole time talking with people who teach/work in other countries in the area of special education. Make friends with a large group from Mexico and fall in love with Latin Culture all over again. I began to lean towards the D.R.

April 25- Spend a wonderful day with Joy and Peter at church and in downtown Franklin, began leaning back towards Nashville.

April 25 later on- Officially talk to the director of the school in the D.R. began leaning back the other way.

April 25 Again-Drive ten hours back to Tulsa going through every single emotion possible (excitement, crying, sadness, anger, confusion, guilt....)

April 29-Ruin my car..... it starts to feel like the end of the world, but God reminds me it is not.

April 30-May 2-Nashville has a huge flood, please continue to pray for them.

May 3-Phone interview with the principal in the D.R.

May 4-Get an officially job offer from the school I really really like in Nashville.

May 5- have another job interview over the phone, goes really well.

May 6-officially decide to take the job at the school I really really like in Nashville at Fairview Middle School----> more details to come. :)

May 8- Trusting God I made the right decision.

TOMORROW post.... the things that led me to make this choice and why i was so torn.

These Boots Were Made for....

........Being on my Feet!!!

This is a side story of how I like cowboy boots. and goes ironically behind my last post.

I do not know where my liking of them started but I know that I like them.

Currently I have one pair that i got from Target that are great, but are wearing out.

So I started searching online for some and these are what I found. However they are all way more than want I would want to spend on boots.

So I will just drool......

these are a little more simpler than the others but get the point across

these are black with lots of color and have a butterfly design.... love it!these are super amazing with such detail and distress.

These are the coolest of all...super distressed with cactus and of course they are the most expensive. :)

I am hoping that since Nashville is such a country music town...that I will one day while scavenging thrift stores find an amazing pair!!

Here's hoping! Yeehaw!

WILD THINGS

There is so much that has happened this past week that I can not begin to explain them all....

so I won't on this post.

What I will talk about is things!!!!!!!!!! They are what you love to love but hate to love at the same time.

Ugh in America we get so caught up with wanting things and "needing" things.

And then when we have to get those things we have to spend more money to take care of those things.

Cars....ugh the largest money pit ever. I hate them.

Computers......same thing.

I seriously wonder if i count up all the things in my apartment that I have but do not really need to survive what that percentage would be. Probably like 95% or something. How in the world does this cycle stop???

I am so guilty of it so much! Even though I have been in other countries and seen people live such different lives. I still live the same way. Part of me still wants that "American Dream" and the other part loathes that dream.

I have no real resolution to this problem. Other than just giving every little thing over to God. I try to do that as much as possible. However, sometimes my grip is just too tight and I can only let go slowly one finger at a time.

He has so many great things for us and most are not tangible. I wish we could physical trade-out our things for his things. It might help me get the picture more.

OK well.... no other thoughts and no conclusion..... just off to loose my grip some more.

ooh and here is a video slightly related http://www.storyofstuff.com/

how the T came to be

First..... currently dancing to

"Here In Your Arms" by: Hellogoodbye

Second: I have mostly ruled out the D.R., but I still am holding on to it a little

Third: This is how I decided to name the blog "Trail Leaping"

(Please press play on the below video to listen you while you read.)

About 2 months ago or so I was talking with a friend about what I my next "life move" was going to be. At that point I knew it was time to leave Tulsa, but I hadn't figured out where I was going to be leaving to. My friend was really encouraging and in the course of the conversation used the word term "trail-blazer".

Then there is Joyce Meyer.

People could call her trail blazer, but if you read any of her books she didn't not end up where she is quickly. She would admit to most of the time to not even knowing where she was going.

That is what I think happen to most people anyway. Pretty much we do not really know where we are going.

Enter the Carmen song..... there is a line that says "Walkin' out on the promises God made

Takin' a giant leap in the air"

Maybe we are so much as "trail blazing"....... but trail leaping.

Insert my made up definition here:

trail leaping (t-ra-ale lee-p-ing) v. the act of trailing after God and his will by taking leaps through the air into nothing, trusting him that you will land in the right spot that will appear as he uncovers them

insert scriptural thought here:

Abraham trail leapt. Romans 4.

Purple= the leaping part.

¹⁹Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead.²⁰Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

The title of my blog also makes me think of lily pads or a sky diver.

OK insert your thoughts.... I want your opinion or other analogies you can think of.

Temptation

SO........

My Nashville plan is still definitely in the workings...however... .

In my last post I mentioned that I had applied for a teaching job in the Dominican Republic and they had said that I do not have enough experience.

Well....they emailed me the other day saying that their special education position has opened up.

The director of the school has sent me a couple emails with tons of information about the position and things.

It has some benefits like air fare reinburshment, healthcare options US and abroad, they will partially furnish living quarters, pay the deposit on your living place, and etc.

It has some downsides, a two year contract, making less money, putting off grad school further, and being marriage minded would that delay that area further?

TEMPTATION TEMPTATION OR OPPORTUNITY OPPORTUNITY????

Is this a distraction from a path I am currently on or an opportunity to trust God even more?

I have no idea.....

(side note: i know i said that next time i would talk about the title, but now it will be the next time.)

A little after the start.....

So this blog is starting a little after the decision was made (the making of a decision could have been it's own two year long blog) but here it is after much praying, waiting, thinking, and etc..

Before I say the decision that I made in February here are all the possibilities I considered, some more seriously than others but almost all with hours of Internet research and some with actual applications filled out and sent in.

Moving to Austin for graduate school.

Moving to Colorado Springs.

Moving to Miami for attempting graduate school.

Moving to New York for attempting graduate school.

Teaching in Indonesia.

Teaching in China. (Pretty much any Asian country that would pay me to teach English. Some actually keep calling me.)

Moving back home to Houston.

Moving to Minneapolis.

Trying to do the World Race for missions.

Joining the Peace Core.

Staying in Tulsa.

Staying in Tulsa but working at a different school.

Moving to Dallas.

Teaching in Dominican Republic (they said I didn't have enough experience)

After all of it........

I am moving to Nashville.

(It sounds even more official typed up.)

This one fell into my lap unexpectedly. (Story inserted below)

I want to go to grad school for a degree in International Education.Not many schools have that program All the other places that have it are either too cold, too expensive to live, or I do not know anybody. I was randomly reading a special education article online, one click lead to another and boom a little school called Vanderbilt has and it is in Nashville. Granted, Nashville I really only know two people, but that is better than no one.

So here it goes..... now leapings of faith to get a job, find a place to live and a roommate, make some friends, and get into Vandy for fall 2011.

Next time more on the title of the blog...........