A Stolen Idea

Ok, I admit it, I stole this idea from my friend Sarah B:

I am just wondering how many people out there are just "blog lurkers" and never leave comments! I'm not angry or anything, I am just interested in knowing who checks out "Tim and Jules".
LEAVE A COMMENT if you check this blog :o)

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ...BLAST OFF!

Well, There are 10 days and counting until I take my Praxis Teaching Certification Test! Needless to say, I am a bit nervous! I have been studying about 1-2 hours a night and more on the weekends. I am feeling confident in the Language, Vocabulary, and Reading sections. But I am nervous about the Algebra and Geometry though. It has been eight years since I have worked with that kind of Math!

Thanks in advance for all of your love and prayers!

Frustration

What do you do when you are feeling frustrated about something... or just impatient with someone? I'm struggling! HELP!

p.s. It's not my dear husband :o)

At Your Funeral

Tonight at care group, our Pastor, Brett Campbell spoke to us about our "Legacy". He asked us to list the top 3 things we would like others to say about us at our FUNERAL!

I have to admit, I just wasn't sure of what to say at first. I finally came to the following conclusions:

1.) That my words were seasoned with salt.
2.) That I loved eternal things and did not cling to the material things.
3.) That I fervently sought to study God's word in a deep and daily way.


I was shocked by my own answers! Could anyone say this about me NOW? Hmmm...
Something to mull on.

What would your top three be?

P.S. It's 1:45am and I just finished my grades for the 2nd quarter...yahoo :o)
I know this post says it is TRB a.k.a. Luthers stein, but it's actually me...
~ Jules ~

God's blessings to me!

These are my beautiful 19 fourth grade students at Christmas time. They so graciously gave me the "Gift card Tree" beside me. Each student sent in a gift card (Taps, Gap, T.j Maxx, Panera, Kirk lands, Olive Garden.... you name it!) I was sooo flabbergasted, I didn't even know what to say, except THANK YOU :o)

I always love my job, but especially this time of year :o)

No, seriously, I have some pretty awesome kids that I am SURE God is going to do amazing things with this year and in the FUTURE!

It's Not All About Me!

Well, Yesterday was my 26th birthday. And for those of you who do not know me... my birthday is a huge deal to me! Growing up my family threw massive birthday parties for my twin sister and I as well as my brother (whose b-day was Jan 15th and is one year younger than us.)

Well, needless to say there is always so much anticipation leading up to my birthday. I would run like an excited school girl to the mailbox everyday, just to see if I had gotten another Birthday card!I got a card or a package almost every day! One day I didn't get either, so I BEGGED Tim to let me open the B-day present from him early --he eventually gave in and i opened it! He bought me a pair of leather J.crew slippers-- I love them!

The Friday before my birthday, my friends at G.C.A brought in my favorite:angel food cake and strawberries! I got a bunch of sweet cards from my students, and my co-teacher got me a subscription to "Light and Tasty"! That night a few of my seminary friends took me out to Panera and we had a little party for myself and Natalie Trach (her b-day is the 31st). We had a wonderful time together. I got coffee beans, Starbucks giftcards, a new pilates dvd(yahoo!), and two shirts :o)Thank you girls-- you're the best!

Well... it seemed like I was going to have the perfect b-day, until...

1.) I woke up early (couldn't sleep) and had shredded wheat by myself in the Living Room. I realized: It's not all about me.

2.) I ran out of gas on the way to the grocery store! Our gas gauge "Floats" so we never know exactly when we need gas. So I ran out of gas, pulled into Sentara (very near our house) and WALKED to the closest 7/11 with my little gas tank. We only have one car, so tim was not able to pick me up. Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of Dawn Mihelis (my dear best friend!) and she picked me up at the gas station and brought me back to my car. I was quickly reminded that it was not all about me!

3.) I used a new face mask about 30 min. before we were going to go out on the town.. no problem , right? WRONG! It turned my face BRIGHT RED for over 2 hours! I started crying to Tim and sadly said, " I don't want my face to be hot and red on MY BIRTHDAY!! sob sob sniff sob" --He so graciously ---LAUGHED at me! It's ok, I laughed too then, and quickly remembered: It's not all about me!

Fortunately, that night, once the red wore off, we were able to go to dinner with Dawn and Nate to the 219 Restaurant in Norfolk. We had a wonderful time enjoying our meal and the company! I will blog on that later though :o)

I guess God was trying to teach me to be a little less self-centered!

Salvation is of the Lord

The morning after I could not sleep all night, I went to school(Wednesday)and I have to admit, I wasn't in the best of moods. I was tired and cranky. Well... every Wednesday at G.C.A. we have lower school chapel. That day Wes Kouba (seminary student) was preaching about the gospel.

He preached that:
1.)Jesus Christ is our God
2.)Jesus Christ is our peace
3.)Jesus Christ is our Salvation

**It was an AMAZING CHAPEL! He was so animated, thorough, and most of all... BIBLICAL! It was so great!

He told the kids that if they had any questions about the gospel to come and ask their teacher. Well, like I said, I was NOT looking to minister to the kids that day--sadly. But God's sovereignty outweighed my tiredness!

Three children came to me and asked me how to become a christian! I walked them each individually through the bridge tract (very good for kids!) and was able to lead them to the Lord!
Four other children made sure of their salvation and rededicated their lives to the Lord! Praise the Lord for working through and inspite of weak vessels!

It's not by strength, nor by power,but by My Spirit says the Lord!

If you can't sleep count sheep-- or make jewelry and blog :o)

If you can't sleep then get up and do something, instead of lying their worrying. It's worrying that gets you, not lack of sleep.
-Dale Carnegie


It use to be that I could fall asleep wherever /whenever.
Recently, I have been struggling to fall asleep when I want to!

It's 2:30am and I am still NOT TIRED! I know my body needs rest --- but i just get restless in bed! I even took some cough medicine with Vicodine in it... thinking it would knock me out, but it didn't even phase me! I was afraid I was going to wake Tim up at 1am, so I got up and made a 50 inch black necklace!!! Yes, I said 50 :o) I used up ALL of my black beads! I just figured I could wrap it around my head a few times for a different look.

Anyways, here I am now ... blogging.... you are probably reading this at a normal time of the day...wondering how I am making it through my school day with 20 kids hounding me every minute for something. Well, the TRUTH is, I am most likely head down on my desk, drooling on my books, with kids all around me trying to wake me up --or playing a joke on me- one of the two :o)

Well, guess I'll go do something productive and study for the Praxis!

Good night... and Good day!
jules

Prayer Requests and Praises

Praise - Over the break, my 22 year old brother josh, who has some mental disabilities, had a seizure and fell down the stairs at our farmhouse in PA. He went to the hospital for a day and a half and then they sent him home, having fully recovered! The only thing is that we do not know what is causing the seizures (he has had them before) and we would appreciate prayer that the Lord would keep him safe: working, driving, etc. Thank you!

Prayer - I am signed up to take the praxis I test on February 10th. The test will be from 8am - 12;30pm :O() The praxis is a series "Pre-Professional Skills Tests" used to obtain a state teaching license. Since we will be moving to Chicago this summer, (and Northland never required me to get licensed) I need to get my state license. That requires my taking the praxis I. The test is made up of 3 sub-tests: Reading , Writing, and Arithmetic. I have a 666 page study book from Barnes and Noble that I have to go through in a month (Do you think there is an omen with that 666 deal? --hope not!). Anyways, I am most nervous about the Math section. There will be Algebra and Geometry.... and needless to say, I suck at Math! Fortunately I am a little more confident in the Reading and Writing sections, so I should be able to focus more on the Math. If you could just pray that I would be consistent in my studying for the next month and do well on the test in February, I would greatly appreciate it :o)


Prayer- I went to Patient First at 8am Saturday morning after having a soar throat and cough for a week. They told me that I had Bronchitis and on top of that... Pink Eye :O() I guess that is one of the many "Joys" of being a teacher. I am taking it easy, and taking like four different medicines : eye drops, antibiotics, cough medicine, and an inhaler. Sooo hopefully it is no big deal and the meds will do there job. Thanks for praying though!

II Thessalonians 1:3- We ought always to thank God for you, brother , and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love everyone of you has for each other is increasing.
Thank you for your love and prayers!

Annual Gingerbread Building Contest

Well, in December Tim and I met with some church and G.C.A friends to build gingerbread houses. Last year we came in LAST place with a very tall homeless shelter (it was not intended to be that originally --it just kind of turned out that way!)

This year we were determined to pull out of our last place position. We started well, lifting the walls together...
But we hit a low when we realized we had built the walls to wide to support the roof. Here is Tim at his most frustrated point. He worked very hard to make it all work together.




And even though our roof fell down a few times, we finally got it to stay put.
Here is the outcome of our hours of hard work together...

We were pretty proud of ourselves...









That is until we saw the houses that the other couples built...





There was a barn with shredded wheat as hay, a tall house that was built to match the builder's house, a lighthouse with much detail, and a miniature gingerbread village with little tin foil men throwing snowballs and sledding.


So needless to say after the casting of the votes, we came in LAST place again! Oh well! We enjoyed making our gingerbread house and had a great time with our friends :o)