Blessed

blessed: (adj) characterized by happiness or good fortune

Anyone who has heard the story of my life over the past few years knows how happy I am to be where I am right now.

For those of you that don't know, I spent two years teaching in a Title 1 school, which means that a certain percentage of the students live below the poverty line. I believe when I started, 80-85% of the students were on free and reduced lunch. I was not supported by the parents, with some exceptions. I was not supported by the administrators, with almost no exceptions. By September of my second year, I was ready to quit. I cried almost every day. I hated going to work. I went home exhausted from the emotional turmoil I was going through.

Somehow I made it through the first semester. And the second semester just got tougher. By the end of February, I was done. I had been praying about it, and I had lots of others praying for me, and I finally came to a decision:

I was taking at least a year off.

I immediately filled out my declaration form, turned it in to Cheryl, and never looked back. I immediately felt that a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Many people around me were concerned because I had no job prospects lined up, but I didn't care. I felt at peace, and I knew I'd made the right decision.

In May, with a few weeks left in the school year, we were at Buffalo's for trivia one night. Jon, April's husband, had invited his mom to come with us. In the middle of dinner, he goes, "So Mom, can you get Lynn a job?" I think he was mostly joking, but she said, "Actually, we are looking for an administrative assistant, but it won't be for a few weeks, maybe not til July."

I almost fell out of my chair. I'd been looking for that exact type of job for weeks. People tell me I'm a leader, but I don't see it. I'd rather be behind the scenes, taking care of others. Making sure that they look good. I'm a Leo McGarry, not a Jed Bartlett. I'd been applying to work in doctor's offices and vet practices and the like, and now a job had literally been dropped in my lap!

Long story short, I ended up going through the interview process and getting the job. I started in the middle of July, which gave me just enough of a break from teaching to really get back to my old self again.

Fast forward six months.

I've slowly been taking on more and more responsibilities at work. Today I was given a few new (big) ones: helping out with the pre-invoicing for a project. It's one of our bigger projects that I usually help with, but we're going to start working on it before the end of the month to alleviate some of that volume of work. The second thing is to be making travel arrangements for people. We want to streamline our process and keep it from being so spread out. So I drafted an email and sent it out, saying, "Let me be your travel agent! I'll book flights, reserve hotels, schedule cars, and I'll even cancel reservations if something happens! No more stress about travel for you!"

Which leads me to the point of this entire post, which is waaaaay longer than I originally anticipated. George, one of our business development guys and our Czech consul, came by my desk and said that he was so glad that I was a member of this team. He loves how willing I am to help everyone, and he is amazed by the level of service I give to everyone. He asked if I had a lot of experience in service. I told him not in this type of service, but I've always been more of a servant. I want to help others succeed. It's why I went into teaching, it's why I spoil my niece and soon-to-be nephew (hurry up, SJ!). It's why I'm happier on someone else's birthday than my own. I love to give. And I don't need anything in return.

But you know what?

It sure is nice to have someone recognize what I do.

And you know what else?

It happens *daily* at my job. D-A-I-L-Y.

A lot of people misuse or overuse the word "blessed." But I am truly truly blessed to be where I am right now. God's timing is perfect. Trust it!

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Getting a Jump on Things in 2014

I recently finished my "26 Before 27" list, and one of the items on there is to volunteer somewhere. I decided to combine that goal with another goal, run a 5k every month.

So I started looking at races for upcoming months, trying to find one race that I would like to participate in and another race that I would like to volunteer with. I don't have a volunteer race for January, but in February, I'm going to volunteer for Run the Reagan. I thought about running that race, but I found another one that was smaller, cheaper, a trail run, and benefited a local high school that one of my friends teaches at, so I decided to just volunteer for RTR.

For March, I'm still looking, but I think I'm going to participate (either run or volunteer) for one at an elementary school near my house. April, on the other hand, is jam-packed. I've got the Color Run (duh, running) the first weekend, MS Walk in Marietta the second weekend (either walking with work group or volunteering), possibly volunteering for an event that some of my coworkers are doing the third weekend, and MS Walk in Atlanta the last weekend (either walking with work group or volunteering, whichever I didn't do for the walk in Marietta). And then in May, I don't know what event I'm running, but I'm DEFINITELY volunteering for Bubble Palooza at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds. I think I read somewhere that volunteers get to participate too, but either way, YES. It's basically Color Run + BUBBLES. Who could say no to that?!

Another thing on my list was to find a church that fits all of my needs. I've been looking around for awhile, but most churches have done away with "singles/20s and 30s/post grad/etc" groups. And even more have done away with your typical "Sunday School" type setting and gone more towards "small groups" and such, which makes it harder to meet people sometimes. But I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for a 20s and 30s community group through Grace Fellowship Church. The group meets in my town on Thursday evenings, and I believe it's co-ed, which is a huge draw over 12Stone. Don't get me wrong; I LOVED my small groups and the girls that I met through them. But I want to meet guys too. I know what you're thinking, but trust me, this isn't about dating. At least, it's not *just* about dating. I'd be lying if I said that thought didn't cross my mind. My main desire is for fellowship. I haven't had a good group of guy friends since high school. Even the ones in college turned out to be more of acquaintances than friends (unless it suited them, but that's a whole different story). So we'll see what happens with the community group.

I'm also going to try out the church. If all else fails, I could still do 12Stone as my church and Grace for community groups, but I'd like to just have one church. It sure would make it easier. Beggars can't be choosers though, I guess.

I haven't cooked as much as I'd hoped to (at least, not for myself. I cooked a good bit for Melissa, Russell, and Baby-To-Be-Named-Later/Rhubard/Indiana/Kendra-Flowers/StacheJr this weekend), BUT I did try this amazing tortellini bake recipe. I was a little bit skeptical at first, because I usually just cook tortellini and throw pasta sauce on it, but I am telling you, baking it made all the difference. Even if I hadn't put the cheese on top, the baking really infused the flavor. I will never cook tortellini the same (old) way again. And it was super quick and SUPER easy. It will most likely become a staple recipe in my house for when I don't feel like really cooking.

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First Adventure with a Crockpot

One of my goals for 2014 is to blog more, just to get things out of my head. I want to do something like Heather does and review books, tv, and movies; however, since I just got a new crockpot, I'll also discuss any recipes that I've tried!

I like leftovers, but I hate eating them for days and days. Except for poppyseed chicken... I could eat that every meal for the rest of my life! So when I cook, I try to make things that Heather can eat too, which can be difficult because Heather is lactose intolerant... and I LOVE my cheese.

For my first crockpot adventure, I wanted to make something for both of us, so I found a few recipes and let her choose. She decided on teriyaki chicken, so I made this recipe. I took an inventory of our pantry before I went to the store to make sure that we'd have all of the ingredients needed. It was really easy: mix ingredients in a bowl, put chicken in crockpot, pour mixture over chicken, cover, and wait. I made rice and grilled zucchini to go with it. It turned out really well. I've got enough left over for lunch tomorrow and another serving, which I'll probably take to work on Tuesday.

I've even printed off a menu planner to attempt to plan out my month. I've always feared doing this because I hate when I plan something and it doesn't happen, but another goal for 2014 is to not let things get to me as much. Sometimes I'll want to go out to dinner with someone or I'll be in the mood for something else or I won't be hungry, and that's okay.

I'm really excited about a recipe that I found on pinterest, a chicken and cheese casserole. I'm planning on cooking it next Sunday. I have a feeling that my new crockpot and I are going to be great friends!

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