thanks for listening

oh boy. what a busy day at work. i finally have five minutes of silence and i'm wondering what to do with myself. it's really nice.
nothing profound to say. i feel like every time i log in to write, i need to say something fantastic that you all will love reading. so let me dig up some good fixins...
this past weekend, i spend all day saturday in Canton by myself. although it was the Malone homecoming weekend, i didn't really have anyone to celebrate the festivities with-or so I thought. (Matt was in his MBA class at Malone). It was REALLY really nice to have a day alone. I recall sitting in a fabulous Marcia Everett class in college...i think it was senior capstone...(well....of course we called it 'crapstone' because we're 12)....where we had a discussion on the benefits of living in silence. I remember agreeing with Jenna Anderson when she said that sometimes when you get in your car, you just need to turn the radio on-to find a good song to go along with your mood, or up your mood, whatever. Kind of like on Jerry Maguire when he finally finds a song to sing along to ('Free Fallin' by Tom Petty') to capture his moment of success. I silently agreed with Jenna, thinking "YEAH I do that!" while the rest of the class refuted it, saying that they prefer to get into their car and just think in silence. Yeah right, you know you like to sing in the car.
Author Henry Nouwen also writes about the benefits of living in silence. I love this exerpt so much that I could not cut it:
"Silence requires the discipline to recognize the urge to get up and go again as a temptation to look elsewhere for what is close at hand. It offers the freedom to stroll in your own inner yard, and to rake up the leaves there and clear the paths so you can easily find the way to your heart. Perhaps there will be much fear and uncertainty when you first come upon the "unfamiliar terrain", but slowly and surely you will discover an order and familiarity which deepens your longing to stay home....... whenever you come upon this silence, it seems as though you have received a gift, one which is "promising" in the true sense of the word. It promises new life. It is the silence of peace and prayer, because it brings you back to the One who is leading you." . . . . . . . . . Henri Nouwen
So recently, I've been doing things in silence more and more. I think that when I do this, my thoughts are clearer. When I spend no time to myself in a day, my thoughts rush and change, and are pretty blurry. It helps me "rake up the leaves and clear the paths". I love it.
So here I sit in my five minutes of silence. My thoughts are clear now...thanks for listening.
Back to the grind.

front page worthy

I finally wrote a front page-worthy article. Check out: http://www.stowsentry.com/index.php?tD=09262006. I know it's not a big-city paper. But hey.
It's completely different than the original-the editors really took out some good transitional sentences that I thought made it QUITE less choppy...I think they were trying to save space or something...actually the more I think about it, the more upsetting it seems....I guess I'm my biggest critic. I did write to the editor today letting him know that I did not agree with the final outcome of the article. I really did feel much more attached to the people I interviewed than what was portrayed (and was definitely evident in the article I originally submitted). We'll see what he says.
OH, BUT BUT BUT I loved writing this article. Everyone was pretty emotional over Dan's return from Iraq. I talked to Dan, his wife, his daughter's teacher, and the school principal who all just about made me cry when they told their stories. I guess any article with a subject like this one is front page-worthy. Very cool.

i hope it's in the genes

now TELL me that this isn't one of the cutest little guys you've ever seen. it's my nephew (my brother's baby), noah. he smiles a ton and is perfectly content just sitting there. just like my brother and his wife courtney. i just hope that *someday* when matt and i have kids that it's in our genes to have one or some this cute and *easy*. matt and i were able to visit the proud parents last week in south carolina. boy i miss the south, and i miss having them around. we had a great time, and courtney made a mean taco salad and chocolate chip cookies. mike's got himself a keeper. oh yeah, but seriously, check out the baby. the cutest.

I went for an academic advising meeting today. If I choose to go back to school for special education, it'll be another four + year haul for me. !!!--I didn't even take a full four years for undergrad.
The first thing out of Matt's mouth was, "well when are we going to have kids?"
Okay....valid point.....
So, what I decided to do in the meantime is get as MUCH schooling under my belt until that day comes; go the full nine hours each semester if I can, all the while working full-time.
you may know something that I don't know; it may sound silly. Please do tell. I will gladly solicit advice. But in the meantime, all I can do is my best :)

fine man

he is a fine man. my favorite thing about matt is how soft his heart is. i know he's wearing this really huge and intimidating steeler's jersey and is sporting some rough facial hair (when i hug him i exfoliate), but the man is not afraid to show affection. praise God. his love language is touch. mine is (i think) is acts of service. since we've learned these predominant languages in each other, we have tried to show the other person that we acknowledge their 'language' by exemplifying it in our actions. for ex, matt will try to show me that he loves me by giving me a hug, which i will return or initiate. and i will show him that i love him by cooking dinner and doing his laundry, while he in turn paints the doors. (oh man, it sounds really lame as i write it...)
so that's my husband. what a catch.

i can't believe that i have thus far left this picture out of my blog. these are my most favorite friends to surround myself with, and i was so happy to have them all squeezed around me on my wedding day. i say squeezed because matt had eight groomsmen too. all 18 of us, plus the ringbearer, provided for some seriously panoramic pictures. colorful, beautiful pictures. look at how pretty they all are! and they're the nicest, to boot. with the ratio of people to camera flashes, just about every picture showed at least one person with their eyes shut. it's a hoot. anyway, i love all of you girls. i miss you too. wasn't that a fun day? (minus the first annual akron city marathon being run right in front of the church, it went without glitch). it was my favorite day. i bet you can't tell which two are pregnant in the picture...one with twins! okay okay i'll tell you :) carrie is three months along, and beth (sister in law) is two months along with twins. thank you for being good sports!

get a stir on

so i had this other blog ready to post...and i decided it's too morbid. i don't only want to complain on here...sheesh. it was a good day. matt took me to lunch before he left for kentucky (yee haw). we had good food and good conversation. he'll be gone till friday, so this will give me time to catch up on all of my tiny tasks that i put off as though they're diseases. like working on my wedding album. it's crazy...we've been married almost three years (for pete's sake!), and i still have just an empty album and over 800 pictures to go through...oh yeah, over 800. it's daunting. i don't know where to start. and i used to think i was creative. ha. help me! :)
so i'm thinking about going back to school for special ed. it's something that i've always been passionate about (and really, i could kick myself in the butt for changing my major at Malone (oh yeah...i bet y'all didn't know i was an education major through the first week of school)...it's not at all that i didn't love my major...i did! but the more i sit on my degree, the more i step back and breathe, i am realizing what God's calling in my life is. i love working with people, in particular kids, who have trouble with something, whether it is reading, sitting still, figuring out adolescence (cause i'm an expert, right...), then helping them find a solution. i think it's one of the most fulfilling things i can do. i was once told that i need to do what makes my heart stir. my heart stirs when i work with a student whose life changes drastically. a few months ago, i worked with a 15 year old girl who was a textbook genius, but didn't apply herself. she was failing in school, was suicidal (a cutter-i saw her scars), and barely talked to me. by the end of her 18 week session, she was merit roll standing at school, excelled in orchestra and loved to perform in front of crowds, wanted to play sports, and started speaking conversationally, to me, her mom, and made friends she used to be afraid of. she was my miracle!
so here i go. my first step is to take the GRE....yipee, and then apply, take classes...and three to four years from now (another yee haw!) i'll be double-degreed. the blessing through this is...kent state university is paying just about every cent. what a bonus.
i'll talk about that journey occasionally.
good night.