Christmas/My Crazy Husband

Hello Everyone,

Well the semester has ended and I am still alive. I had so many goals for my Christmas break…clean, cook, get crazy organized, and all that good stuff. I have yet to really get involved in any of that. What I have managed to do is catch up on my couch and sleep time. O well baby steps. I’m sure I’ll be a week out from spring semester and make all of those things happen.  “Fingers Crossed”…moving on.

So as we approach a new year, I like everyone else have set goals. The usual get healthy and wake up feeling like a VS model is on the list of course. However the most important one is to SAVE! So, like the good wife that I am, I decided to share this with my husband. He however got very carried away. We now how several spreadsheets detailing how we will spend each and every penny we make. :/ This wouldn’t be such a bad thing, except I like to shop a little.  Today, I walked into the kitchen only to find my husband freezing our credit card. No…he didn’t call the company…he took out a Rubbermaid bowl, filled it with water, placed our credit card in it, and then proceeded to place it in the freezer. Puzzled, I asked what the heck he was doing. His response…”this will make it harder for us to use it. Now we’ll have to thaw it out. You’ll have to ask yourself…do I really need this.” I wasn’t sure whether to scold him, laugh, or snatch it and run away. Now that I don’t have it, there are so many things I need/want! Dang it. No more Sephora hauls, or walking out of Target on a high. What am I going to do with my life! Unfortunately, Anthony will be deploying soon. I usually shop to cope. I guess I’m going to have to actually read my text this semester to stay busy. On a good note if all goes well, we will have a good amount set aside and I’ll be able to watch Suze Orman again without feeling terribly guilty.

I hope everyone has a beautiful Christmas. I will be praying for all the families in Connecticut who aren’t able to be with their little ones this year. "May God bring them peace" I will also be praying for the troops overseas. I ask you all to do this same. XO

“Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it's Christmas.”

Dale Evans

New Days, New Challenges...

Hello everyone,

So wow, I specifically remember starting this blog and stating that I would be updating it every week. I'm fired. I will tell you this... school, internship, a husband, and a ton of homework will keep you busy. I might have under estimated my ability to be productive. Moving on...

School is wonderful!. Its challenging and amazing. Baylor is everything I though it would be. My teachers are so thoughtful and kind...it's unnerving. On to the less fluffy stuff. With the great comes the bad. I am learning swiftly that the field of social work is not always about helping people. I work in an agency with adolescents. EVERY SINGLE DAY I see someone go home that shouldn't be. Today was especially tough. Maybe that's why I chose to write. We had to send a boy home (because his insurance ran out) that is destined to go home, get loaded, and do something dangerous. During a conversation I asked this boy..."when is a time you remember being happy?" His response "I can't ever remember being happy." It broke my heart. This profession is pressing and not for the weak. I'm growing thicker skin, but with that come intolerance. (Just being honest).

I have a hard time listening to acquaintances and people I know complain about things that are so trivial and ridiculous. "I cant do this and I have to do this...blah...blah...blah" Be grateful you have a home, a healthy kid, a job, and food. Working with the less fortunate and individuals with real struggles will make you hard. Don't get me wrong I have my fair share of complaints, we all do. However, when you make it a point to talk about your life everyday on Facebook and complain about what you do and don't have, I invite you to live a day in the shoes of some of the kids I see.

I am one month shy of finishing my first semester. I have grown so much. I'm more wise and a lot less materialistic. I'm trying to focus on the positive these days and not let the small stuff bother me. If you know me well, that is probably funny to you. Baby steps people... Baby steps. I'm not making any more promises. Hopefully you guys get an update within the next couple of weeks and not months. Fingers Crossed :) I'll leave you all with a small quote...

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."

Another week...and a question to ponder?

Hello all,

What a long two weeks this has been! I’m just going to get right into it. The last time I wrote I was actually sitting in a class of mine “Church Social Work”! Let me start by saying that if I didn’t go to a Christian college I would not have known that church’s actually employed social workers. That’s sad but true. This class is full of dual students…social workers/truett students. In case you’re unaware… It’s Truett Seminary. I love the lord, I really do but, I am way out of my league in this class. I have to write a paper on what the world would look like in biblical terms. …………………long silence…………………….birds chirping…………..ya I don’t even know where to start with that. I’m hoping I can find cliff notes on the bible.  Once again so sad but so true. I’m going to get through it but this paper is going to take some serious work, time, energy, and above all patience.

 So I had to write a book review on a book called “The externally focused church”. I have to say that the book itself was so interesting. Youth today have a very different opinion on organized religion. Half the people I meet today including myself don’t identify with one specific religion if anything they consider themselves spiritual. This book talks about how the majority of churches today are more inwardly focused. In other words they use attendance rates to determine their success. The Externally Focused Church talks about how churches should be more focused on their communities therefore regaining the trust of the public as well as the youth today. The idea is that if churches became more externally focused they would restore faith in the younger generations. It was very thought provoking…so I decided to pass it on. I really liked it.

Last week I talked about making a calendar that lists all the things that I have to do. The good news is I did everything; the bad news is I have already filled up a new one. I’m already so excited for summer. On a positive note I do believe I am developing a rhythm with these papers. On to the next is my new saying “Sarcasm”! I have to mention a few people in this week’s blog that have helped me in more ways than one. First…Mr. Anthony Munoz. I promise honey I will start cooking again one day. ;) Elizabeth Horton…I promise I will stop using passive voice and I will spell my words out…hopefully! Finally Jonathan Navejar for letting me interview him twice for a school project. I never knew I had such an interesting friend. :O

I wanted to try and make this blog a little more entertaining so I decided to ask a question for everyone to ponder on.  If you could change one thing in the world…just one what would it be? What I mean is if you could stop hunger would you? What about poverty, or abuse? I want to know what you would change and why? If it were up to me I would have to say I would stop world hunger. I would do everything I could to make sure no child went to sleep without eating. I’m so curious what you all think.

I guess that’s all folks…hope everyone has a fantastic week!

THE HEAT IS ON!

So I’m starting to feel it. What I mean is that inevitable feeling that you feel when you’re so overwhelmed that your dreams at night usually consist of all the things you need to do. You know like clean your house which in my case hasn’t been done in forever, write one of the 12 papers you have coming up, check your APA on the paper you have done…etc. I’m actually writing this blog while sitting in class. I know…I know horrible but I need to vent. I seriously have so much to do. I decided to be productive and make a calendar so I would know exactly what I need to do every day. Basically the next break I have…and when I say break I mean doing something besides school work is the 26^th. I’m going to have to just suck it up and push through. Sometimes I wish I were a trust fund kid so I could lie around and for the most part be worry free. But noooooo instead I am accruing student debt as we speak so that I can get an MSW and make peanuts. Weird thing is I feel so lucky. How blessed am I to be able to attend such a great school and learn to give the gift of giving. I saw a passage in class today and wanted to share it with you all…

                “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this”

Esther 4:14

I love this! I feel like I was put in a position to learn to help and hopefully make a huge difference someday. I plan on taking my royal position to higher places. I’m lucky really lucky and so grateful.

Ok so I’ll stop with the dramatics now and move on to funnier more entertaining things. Has everyone run out to get Breaking Dawn? If you haven’t you should! After class I am going straight home…making chicken salad “it’s all I can think about” and putting in Breaking Dawn. I apologize a head of time to my wonderful husband Anthony Munoz. Unfortunately for him he will probably be watch this DVD at least 10 times this week. I can’t help it I’m a Twihard! O here is some big news…my nephew got his driving permit! You people have no idea how old this makes me feel. I swear when I got the text from my sister with a huge picture of EJ “my nephew” holding up a permit I almost started crying. Then I realized I was crying because I’m old enough to have a nephew that drives…when did that happen?

 Have you ever been in class with someone that talk s so much you just want to turn around and ask them to please shut up? I have one of those in my class right now! Seriously she doesn’t stop talking. The teacher started talking about working in a practice with tough issues. For example if you are sensitive to abortion it’s probably not the best idea for you to practice at Plant Parenthood. So this girl makes the point that she isn’t comfortable with abortion “totally unnecessary!” The teacher goes on to tell the class right after this comment that we need to be careful about the things we say in the class, because someone in the class might have had an abortion. The girl then goes on a 30 minute “no joke” rant about how she doesn’t mean any judgment. It took everything I had not too role my eyes. Finally a guy in the front of the class said “WE GOT IT.” I might have prayed for patience last night. Wrong thing to do…god is obviously testing me today.

Well everyone I think that’s a wrap. Sorry this post is a week late. I’ll do better next week. I hope everyone reading this has a great day. I certainly plan too!

Words that Inspire

Hello All,

I hope everyone has had a fantastic week so far. I have had a very busy week and unfortunately it’s just getting started. I had a great first week of school. I have already written my first paper…:/ which is crazy but thankfully I have an English major best friend “Elizabeth Horton” who checked everything out and gave me some great suggestions.  This weekend I will be taking a crises intervention seminar which will be very interesting. By the end of the weekend I should be FEMA certified! In other words if a hurricane happens to blow through Texas or a tornado takes down your house…you can count on me to help. There isn’t much else to report about school. I think it’s going to take some time for me to get used to doing school work again. I did find out that in graduate school 94 and above is an A! OK seriously? I’m like a crazy person when I don’t get an A so hopefully I will manage to meet the 94% standard…no pressure.

I currently work part time for an old friend who happens to be an optometrist. While working yesterday I ran into two little boys that really reminded me of why I want to be a social worker. Both boys had ADHD, but were so doped up on Adderall they could barely read the numbers on the chart to me. Neither of them were wearing clothes that fit them and they both looked like that hadn’t been bathed in days. Their father didn’t even bother to go back with them to get their eyes examined or even help them pick out glasses.  I tried to talk to both boys but they were both so dis-engaged. It truly made me sad. I wanted to walk up to their dad and ask if he even cared that his children both needed glasses in such a severe way that I wasn’t sure how they were getting school work done.  I thought about those two boys all night wishing and hoping that I might have said something to them that made them happy even if it was just for a moment. How do kids like this slip by? Am I the only one that notices these things? As crazy as it seems I feel like I notice people in need more often than others. When I see children like the two boys I saw yesterday I feel such a pull to help. I can’t wait until I finish school. I know social workers make peanuts for salary’s but I am going to feel so blessed and so happy to be able to go to bed at night knowing that I helped someone or made an effort to improve someone’s life.

I think we should all remember that service comes back to us in so many ways. Every day we should make an effort to say something to someone that is selfless and kind. Open a door for someone, say thank you, complement the person beside you…etc. I can remember so many random moments that someone has said something to me that stuck and really made me think. I hope that as a social worker I am able to provide words of wisdom to the people I serve. Words that they think about and it inspires them to be better or at least brings a smile to their face.

OK I’ll get off my soap box now. Next week I should have more to report on school so you can all take pity on me. I already have another project I’m about to start that’s due week 3. Wish me luck…:)

The Beginning...:)

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my graduate school Journey. I started this blog not only to share with all of you but, to document the torture that I will face for the next 2 years while attending grad school. This is my first post so hopefully one day I’ll be able to look back at it and laugh. Now… I am aware that many people go to grad school…but those people arent me. What is different about me you ask? Well to start, I carry so much anxiety that I can make even the smallest assighnment feel like a dissertation. Needless to say I am sure a few of you will read this blog and role your eyes and want to tell me to shut up and the rest of you that are close to me will read it and laugh.  O and P.S expect lots and lots of spelling errors and punctuation errors. I will be reading over and correcting papers daily…making sure everything on this blog looks correct probably won’t happen.

For those of you that don’t know I will be attending Baylor University with the hopes of receiving a Masters in Social Work. My actual program doesn’t start until August, but I have decided to get all of my required electives out of the way before then. These classes start…tomorrow…:/ I am so nervous.  Is this normal? I mean I am really freaking out. You know it’s bad when your husband looks at you over dinner and says…”I expect many break downs in the months to come.” WTH even he thinks I’m crazy. Crazy or not I know that I will not be happy or satisfied until I have completed school, which is why it is beyond important for me to follow through with this and more importantly not give up.

I will update this blog every week hopefully so keep a look out and if you don’t see anything it’s probably because I am hysterically crying on the bathroom floor about a paper that I don’t want to write. Fingers crossed folks that I make it through this.