General Update

It is 9am on Saturday morning. My husband is still asleep recovering from his first week back teaching, and I am sipping my coffee thinking about how we are going to escape the triple digit heat yet again this summer. I know I have given you bits and pieces of what is going on, but I thought you might like a more comprehensive update on the happenings of the Newelywed Norvells.

As noted, Dave finished his first full week back at school of his second year of teaching. He is very pleased with his class again. He says they are quite mellow and even tempered, which he likes. One challenge for him this year is an Autistic student. While Dave only has him in the classroom maybe a total of 3 hours a day, it is something new for him that he is anxious to succeed at. If he continues to do like he has in the past, he will have no problem being an effective teacher even to this child. Now that he has a year under his belt, he is anxious to bring in a little more creativity to his classroom. We spent a small portion of an evening last week looking up children's songs that he might play on his guitar as part of a lesson. I continue to be so proud of him that my heart bursts!

I am officially starting my job Monday Aug 21. That week I will have a two day training session to attend and some other meetings as well. While I have had work sporadically during the summer, I am finally at the point where I have a little to do each day. I planned out a nice daily routine for myself yesterday that I can carry on into the school year so that I can keep up with my job and my school work. I had a training class last Monday, and I am again so excited to dig into this job and succeed. I really feel like this is something that I can do very well at. My one obstacle will be learning all the techie teacher and school talk that I don't know. Hopefully I can use context clues and keep myself from having to ask too many questions.

I also had a wonderful meeting with my graduate school advisor on Monday, Dr. Allison. He gave me all the advice and guidance and direction I needed to register and begin this next huge phase in my life. If all goes according to plan, I will have two classes, one on Monday nights from 6-9 and one on Tuesdays at the same time. That is a perfect schedule for someone who will always need to be available during school hours to take phone calls and visit teachers. Our Lord is so good...He even works out our schedules perfectly! Now all I have to do is wait for my info packet in the mail and I can register.

Thanks again for all the prayers and support from my family and friends. We will be sure to keep you updated on all the progress. Love to you all!

My husband the Handy Man

Dave recently finished his first major "Honey do" project of our marriage, and I have to brag on what an excellent job he did. Like many newlywed couples, we inherited many different items of furniture. We are lucky to have a full bedroom set courtesy of both the Norvells and the Vendsels. Well, me being the snob that I am, wanted everything to match, so I put Dave to the job of restaining the dresser and chest of drawers to match the cherry stain of the end tables. He did an excellent job, and with the new hardward, everything looks amazing. See pictures below.

Masters Degree...here I come!

As of 11:30 this morning I have offically been accepted to UNT! Man oh man I am excited! Praise the Lord for all his blessings!
Thank you to everyone who prayed for me and encouraged me as I went through this loooooooong application process. I loved all the comments on my last blog post, and I am so thankful that I have such a supportive (and really wise...see blog Through a Lense Darkly) family. This is going to be a tough journey, but one I am excited to make. I can't wait! Classes start Aug 28!!!

"I can't get no satisfaction"

When I graduated college and started working in the "Real World", I got bored with doing the same thing every single day. I got up at the same time, did the same job, and the weekends were so short that I never fully had time to recover for the next week. My loving family kindly reminded me that this was going to be a part of every day life for me for a while until I reached the fullest potential in my career that I wanted. A year later I was out of work, by my own fault though, and have actually had a "summer". No responsibilities except to feed my husband every night and make sure I take a shower each day.
Last week I literally cried to Dave out of boredom. I was so tired of not having anything to do, only spending money and not contributing to the bringing in of money, and waiting in anticipation for my new job and a word on acceptance of Grad school. Right now, I would give anything to return to my senior year of college where I was so busy I was pulling my hair out and extremely overcommited....of course, I'd take my husband with me.

That got me thinking...will I ever be content? When I start working, will I be bored with it in a year? Will I want to quit school if I get accepted because I get bored with it? What does it take to keep me happy and satisfied ( the obvious answer of Jesus aside)? Am I so wrapped up in worldly acknowledgment and busyness that I just can't be happy keeping a clean apartment and cooking dinner? What is it that I crave so about being busy, productive, and proactive?

Still nothing from UNT....at this point my pessimism is setting in and the world is ending in my eyes.