Remember Who is in the Boat

This morning, my bible study had me in Matthew 8:23-27.  This is when Jesus and his disciples get into a boat to cross the sea.  Suddenly there was a violent storm and the disciples woke Jesus up to ask him to save them.  They feared they would die.  Jesus the replies "ye of little faith" and rebukes the storm and it ended immediately.

This is one of those stories that I feel never gets enough credit when it comes to the storm on the sea stories.  Everyone talks about when Peter walked on water, but rarely preach about the incident.  But I feel there is a major lesson in this short narrative. 

Don't forget who is in the boat with you!

At this point, the disciples had seen Jesus perform several miracles.  But when the storm began, they still feared they were going to die.  They forgot who was in the boat with them.  They were following the Son of God.  A few of them, although fearful, remembered that Jesus was on the boat with them.  They knew that if they woke him up, he would be able to do something.  They had seen him do great things already...but he needed to be awake.

"Ye of little faith"

I think the disciples knew that when they woke Jesus up that He would save them from the storm.  I believe that is why they woke Him up in the first place.  So I always wondered why Jesus said this to his disciples.  But when you think about it.  Jesus was asleep.  during a violent storm. On a boat.  He wanted his disciples to have faith that everything was going to be okay, without having them wake him up.  But their faith was new, so he did what they asked him to do.  He calmed the storm.

What this means for me...

I have accepted Christ and he now lives in me.  I want to have the kind of faith where I don't have to wake Him up and handle it...I want to have the faith that even in those times I might not feel Him there, He is still working miracles in my life.  I give everything to him, so I don't have to worry about it.

Remember who is in our boat!

My First Step to the New Me

I finally did it.

Yesterday I joined a gym.

Kim, one of the girls in my bible study, is a trainer there and has been asking me for months to come and check it out.  So yesterday, I got in my car and decided to do just that.  I fell in love with the staff and the facility.  It wasn't a hard decision by the end of the tour.

I have been on this platform for the last three years.  Knowing that I needed to do something to change my life, but not willing to take that first step to doing it.  I think its because deep down I felt like if I admitted to needing to change is was a way of telling me that I have been failing me.  I was scared of how other people would see me and treat me when (and if) I finally started down this road.  Well I am starting and I am starting in a big way.

Kim is leading a spinning class this morning, and I will be one of the first on the bikes.  I have heard that spinning is a great cardio workout and will get me started in a good direction.  My goal is to go to the gym everyday for the next 3 months.  Even if it is just to get on the treadmill and walk for 45 min, I will be at the gym.  There is a spinning class three nights a week and I plan on attending at least one a week.  Kim is going to train me one night a week and help me through this change.

Now I know that it is customary at this point to throw in a 'before' picture to see where I started as compared to where I will end up.  However, I do not want to show a before until I have an after to go along beside it.  So stay tuned, this journey is about to get crazy.  But its a good one to get started on.

Struggles...

I have not posted on here in awhile.  I remember when I first started this blog.  Everyday (or at least once a week) I was posting things about my life.  Then the 'new' wore off and it became a chore to get on the blog and share about my ideas and lesson learned.  I want to get better about blogging, but I don't want to just write.  I want to share what is going on in my head.  So I need to share what I have been struggling with lately.

Lately I have felt that something in my life is missing.  I get up, go to work, come home for dinner and then I go to sleep.  Then I wake up and do it all aver again.  Day after day, week after week.  The only exceptions have been on Sundays.  I felt lost.  I felt alone.  I was deep.  Then I read Psalm 13:1-4 and it put everything I was feeling into words.

"How long, O Lord, will you forget me?  Forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?  How long will my enemy triumph over me?  Look at me and answer, O Lord my God.  Give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, "I have over come him," and my foes will rejoice."

I was broken.  It was like this passage was in here just for me.  I went searching, and I found a bible study that my church was having.  The title "Stuck".  If there was one word that described me at this time in my life, that was it.  So I went to check it out.  It was exact ally what I needed.

I realized going through the study with my small group, that I was stuck in many aspects of my life.  I started to peel back layers of my heart and some were hard to deal with.  I had to bring to the forefront things that for a long time I was trying to forget.  This is where my stuck places were centered around, and I finally asked for the Lord to take it from me.  One of my group members, Jill, gave me a whole new outlook on my past.  She said that the bible says that He will never give us more than we can handle.  She said that she counts it an honor that God looked at her and said "She is strong enough for what I am about to give her."  I never thought about it like that.  That God looked at me and thought,"Amanda is strong enough to handle what is about to happen" I was finally able to let go, and I am finally free.  My small group helped me with it.  I went back to Psalm 13, this time focusing on verse 5:

"But I trust in your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me."

I don't look back anymore.  I am going to trust in His unfailing love and rejoice in the salvation that I have been given through His son.  I am not Stuck anymore.  I am ready to see what else the Lord has in store for me.

Another Year at TMS...

It never fails, but a school year just sneaks up on you and before you know it, you are three weeks in wondering how you got there.

August 27, 2012 started like any other day.  I got up, showered, and drove to school anticipating a new year at Texas Middle School.  The day was all about learning names (which makes kids camp seem like a snap when I have twice as many names to learn, but I did it) and reminding our eighth graders of the expectations and rule.  So needless to say, the first day of school always seems to drag on.

The rest of the first week seemed to be just the same.  Our school is big on relationship building and expectations in the first week, so that leaves little room for teaching.  I felt as if I would die if I didn't get to start math.  I was ready for it, but were my kids.

The first unit in our curriculum covers comparing and ordering rational numbers and then goes into expressing numbers in scientific notation.  This was getting into my wheel house.  I love teaching scientific notation.  When I was in school I hated it.  Trying to remember which way mad the exponent positive and which way made it negative was exhausting.  So I thought that I would teach my students the powers of ten and how they relate to sic not.  The started picking it up so fast.

Along with finally getting to start 'teaching', I have been getting to know my students over the last few weeks.  My 3rd period class is my smallest and I love when they come to the room.  There are two that are real characters, Eric and Kameron.  Yesterday morning, I saw Kameron coming down the hall way and he was wearing a shirt that said, "I Ain't Even Mad".  I thought that was great.  I told him I loved his shirt and he thanked me as he walked by.  About 20 min. later Eric came down the hall wearing a shirt that said "You Mad Bro?"  I cracked up thinking about Kameron.  I told Eric that Kameron was wearing a shirt that answered his question.  He said, "Yeah I know"  (and I thought girls were the only ones that planned wardrobes together).

When they finally showed up for class a couple hours later, I had to get a picture of them.

All and all, this year has started out rather well.  Can't wait to see what the future holds.

I Feel Like a Grown-Up

Today I did something that made me feel like an adult.

I BOUGHT MY FIRST CAR!!!!!

When I was hired last year to be a teacher, I knew that I wanted to buy a car.  I have been driving my grandmother's car for the last 10 years and I was ready for a change.  I also knew that I needed to save up a little something so that I would be able to buy said car.

So over the last 12 months, I have been doing research.  Going to website after website to look at what was available.  Heading to dealership after dealership taking countless test drives.  It was exhausting.

After awhile, I was able to narrow it down.  I wanted a small SUV.  But then I had to compare the Toyota Rav-4, the Chevy Equinox, the Ford Excape, and a few others.  The more I looked, the more I started falling in love with the Equinox.

So today, I became the proud new owner of a 2012 Chevy Equinox.

I am excited and really do feel all grown up!

And They're Off...(My Experience at DFW Airport)

Yesterday, I left the beautiful Northwest to return to Texarkana.  Now normally, this trek is very uneventful.  But that was before we hit Dallas with thunderstorms rolling through.

My flight from Seattle was delayed when it was diverted around the storm south and then came back up to DFW.  This little diversion added about an hour and a half to our flight time.  Right before we landed , we were told we were coming in to C28, and then we were given our connecting gates for our next flights.  "Texarkana B4", came over the intercom.

Once I disembarked from the plane, I grabbed a bite to eat thinking, "I have 2 hours and all I have to do is take the tram around to B4 when I am ready to go."  After eating a delicious dinner from T.G.I.Friday's, I made my way to my gate.  When I got there, there was an announcement that our gate had been changed to B7.  I had passed B7 on the way to B4 so it was just a short walk back.  Once I arrived at B7, the announcement came that our flight was leaving from B9.  Another quick stroll and I arrived at B9 only to be told that I needed to go to B35.  This was no short walk however and that meant another ride on the tram.  On the tram, I met a group of people who were all stating their various levels of frustration of the migration that we were all on.  We sat at gate B35 for an hour and were then told once again that we needed to change gates.  This time we were to go to B21.  One good thing for us, our pilots and flight attendant were with us at B35, so they were now in our migration pack.  It must have been amusing for others at the airport watching our herd coming down the terminal.  As soon as we hit B21, the pilots got word that were were now going to be leaving from B15, so we followed them.  And finally got confirmation that we were really going to leave from B15.

So, six gate changes and an hour late, we all finally departed from DFW and headed east to Texarkana.  I met my grandparents at the airport and they took me home and I crawled into my bed at around 11:30.  Another trip finished.

The Un-Writen Rule Broken

Yesterday, I got to hang out with my wonderful friend Samantha Fine and her mother Sarah.  We went to Seattle with no set plans.  We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch.  Since it started out as a nice day, we went to Alki Beach in West Seattle.  After driving up hill, we found a viewing point with an amazing view of the Seattle Sky Line.  From there, our adventure took us across the Ballard Bridge and then into the U-District.  We decided to turn back around and head into the Seattle Center again and we drove right past the Space Needle.  We kept driving, just trying to think of something to do.

That is when we passed SafeCo Field.  I remembered looking at their schedule the other day and they were in town.  I suggested a game and Sam and Sarah were on board.  So we found somewhere to turn around.  Found great parking right in front of the field for an awesome price and headed to the ticket sales window.  We got a good price for seats in the bleachers in center field.

After sitting for about an hour, I realized that my shorts were not going to cut it any longer.  I wasn't at a Ranger game, where game time temps are in the upper 90's.  I was in Seattle.  I decided to explore before the game started and see if I could find a decently priced pair of sweatpants.  As I started my journey for warmth, I ran into the Mariner Moose.  I don't know what they call him, but I did get a great picture.

After the picture, I continued on my journey and found the team store.  After getting the pair of sweats that were on sale, I walked back to the bleachers.  On my way I grabbed a hot dog, some garlic fries and a drink.  I was set for game time.

As the game was starting, a group of Orioles fans came in and were setting behind us.  Some how, we got into a great conversation.  As the game sped along (the first 5 innings in an hour) the guy right behind me asked if any of the Mariners had gotten on base.  I turned around and said no, but we don't want to talk about it (that unwritten rule about how you don't talk about perfect games or no-hitters while they are happening).  So we ignored it.  The Orioles opened up in the top of the 6th and scored four runs.  Chen was pitching great and went 1-2-3 again in the bottom of the 6th.  

As the Orioles took the field in the bottom of the 7th and got the first out, you could feel that something special might just happen.  That is when the un-written rule was broken.  One of the other guys behind me finally caught on to what was happening and said, "I have never been to a perfect game before that would be awesome."  I slumped my head in disgust.  On the very next pitch, Wells hit a home run.  Perfect game and no-hitter gone with one swing of the bat.

The Mariners rallied in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game.  However, the Orioles scored in their half of the 9th and held Seattle in the bottom of the inning to win the game.

It would have been nice to see a Perfect Game.  But I still had a great day in Seattle with Sam and Sarah.