Prayer/Praise

[Kelly]

I'm not really sure what to call this...it's kind of a prayer/praise situation, but here it goes....

I've been working on Saturdays at a storage unit. Meanwhile, I've been looking for a teaching job (or some full time job working with kids). I also volunteer with Kids Club (an afterschool care program). Yesterday my boss at Kids Club asked me to come in and help with VBS mailouts and while I was there, my "co-boss" Holly told me she was resigning. Of course that means they're now looking for someone to fill her spot. For some reason it didn't hit me till today that I should go for that spot. I don't know if they would hire me or if they're looking for someone with more of a management background, but the opening is there. Then today my boss from the storage offered me a full time position because their full time employee put in his two week notice today. Now obviously, the latter would be the easy choice because it's already been offered...its mine for the taking. But managing a storage unit is not something I want to do with my life, you know? It's been hard, and boring. But if I were to get a full-time job with Kids Club, I would take it in a heartbeat! It's hard too, but I LOVE it and it's been SUCH a blessing in my life! But here's where the dilemma comes in....as of right now, I'm not considering that a possibility since I haven't been offered the position and don't even know if I'm eligible. So as it stands right now, I'm looking at subbing again next year. So mom suggested I take the full-time job at the storage for the rest of summer, then go back to subbing. Sounds great....but I'm trying to get a drivers ed class started and was hoping to do that this summer, but a full-time job wouldn't allow that. Then mom pointed out that subbing would allow perfect time for that since i can take off whenever i need, so I could just put it off till the fall. But what if I were to take this full-time job, then get a full-time teaching job...I would have no time for drivers ed.

As you can see, I'm a little all over the place right now and have NO CLUE where to even begin to sort this all out!!! It's usually easy to figure out God's will in a decision, but this involves several decisions and what-ifs and risks....it's hard to know which direction to go! Any insight?

[LauraA]

I can certainly see your dilemma! I guess if it were me, I'd measure how much I need the money (full time job offer), verses how bad I want the driving class, (subbing) and how much you love one place and don't care for the other.

If you pray and ask the Lord to give you His perfect peace concerning the one he would want you at, He will do just that. In the mean time, keep praying. I'll be binding together with you for His will.

[sv3]

I agree with Laura. I'll be praying for you Kelly.

[Kelly]

That's the funny part because I really could use the money to afford a car so I can drive once I've taken the driving class....but if i take this job and then get the full-time teaching job, I wont have time to take driving classes to learn to drive the car that i saved up for....hehe

Also, it'd be nice to save money to eventually move out....I can't live with my parents forever of course :p

[LauraA]

What is your "gut" feeling on this, Kelly?

[Kelly]

My gut feeling is to take the job for the rest of summer....but I have to talk to my DARS counselor first because they're paying for all the driving stuff and I don't know if they can afford for me to put it off longer. So in a way it's kinda up to them (which is nice for me hehe). But I'm going to call my DARS counselor Monday and talk to her about it.

[Kelly]

I've decided not to take the job. Too many factors against it. Would've been nice to make the money, but I have the feeling it's going to work out better this way. If I were desperate for money, it would've been an easy choice, but what I'm really desperate for is to start driving, so I can't risk having that put off for another year.

[LauraA]

I'm glad you have it settled in your mind now. Don't you love it when you find that peace in a situation?!

[Kelly]

Finally heard back from my boss today. Interviews start soon and there has been a "huge response" so it sounds like I've got some serious competition, but I'm going for it! They're gonna hire two part-time positions, which could work really well in my case. Depending on the hours, and what days of the week I'd be working, I could still do subbing and make more money if this job doesn't give me enough.

[Kelly]

Well we had our Kids Club planning/prayer meeting for next year tonight and my boss announced that they hired the two part-time workers. I was upset at first because she never even contacted me to let me know they were interviewing. But the two people that they hired are GREAT so it's good to know we've got a good team together. Of course, after the meeting she pulled me aside and gave me the 15 minute "I'm sorry we didn't hire you" speech. Oh well. For every door closed, one more opens right? :) And I have another possibility. Our local children's museum is looking for a museum associate. Basically I would be in charge of running the museum, making sure the exhibits are safe for the children, and the best part - I would plan the birthday parties!!!! :D That would be a BLAST! We had a party for my nephew this past Sunday and I went all out decorating and mom was like "You SOOOO need that job!" Hehe

[LauraA]

You have such a good attitude. I'm sure it was an uncomfortable situation finding out like you did, and still you look for the next open door instead of pouting. Good for you!

The museum job sounds awesome.

[DawnAurora]

Well, the Lord is His own HR manager and He alone can sort out the jigsaw puzzle of whom He wants to put where when. Trust Him and follow where He leads, even if you can't see where it's leading to, and He'll work things out for you.

[taryns93]

Hey everyone, please pray for someone that I really close to me that has anorexia. They just realized that this is really serious, but is still in denial in a way. They haven't told their parents yet either, so PLEASE pray.

[Kelly]

Thanks Dawn! I totally believe that! I just tend to get impatient easily, so I need to work on that.

I did find out something very interesting today though. That job I applied for at the local children's museum....an old friend of mine from HS is the one who interviews and hires! Looking really good for me! :D I'm going to call first thing Monday morning and make sure she got my resume!

Well, the Lord is His own HR manager and He alone can sort out the jigsaw puzzle of whom He wants to put where when. Trust Him and follow where He leads, even if you can't see where it's leading to, and He'll work things out for you.

[Kelly]

Well I didn't get the Children's Museum job. She said they moved very quickly and had already hired someone by the time she received my resume. Bummer! Back to square one!

She did, however, say that I looked like an excellent candidate based on my resume and they're going to keep it on file. Funny thing is I interviewed for that position last year and was told the same thing....but I guess when they got the new director a few months ago, they threw out the old resumes or something, or they didn't let her know they had mine on file.

[LauraA]

Bummer! But God has something better in store for you. Keep trusting Him.

Pray for Jeremy and guys tonight as they minister in KY. Also pray for their families who are either on the road with them, or home waiting for them. Pray for souls to be stirred and hearts to be opened to the Truth.

[Kelly]

Amen! :) The way I see it, I just got a new "job" today that means a lot more than that one! :D

And I know it will all happen in His time. It's just hard when you've got a vocational counselor pushing you to find a full time job on her time. Ugh! She's gotten a little more laid back lately though since I'm at least subbing.

[Kelly]

There's another job opportunity! They're looking for FT and PT preschool teachers at my brother's church (which is the one I go to on occasion and have been considering joining).

[Kelly]

Ok I have another problem. I got an interview for the job at my bro's church, but the lady said they're looking for someone to work 2:30-6:30. She said that her other teachers do this part time, then sub with the local school district. But I don't see how because most schools don't get out till 3 something. Plus getting this job would mean no more Kids Club. I just don't know what to do :( HELP!!!

My interview is tomorrow at 11:00. Pray for me!!!

[Kelly]

Well guess what.....

I GOT THE JOB!!!!! :D

I train all this week, then start next Monday! I'm SOOOO excited! It sounds wonderful. I will be working in the K-1 room and since I have the pm shift, it'll be easy. I'll do snack with the kids, then homework, then arts & crafts or games. As the kids start to leave, once I don't have very many left, I'll hand them over to my neighbor teacher and I'll go in and help the director with curriculum and office duties.

Then in summer I'll go full time and all the kids will be together in one big group with all the teachers together.

[LauraA]

Praise God! That's awesome, Kelly. It sounds perfect...plus you'll still have plenty of time to be here with us. I'm so happy for you!

[Amanda]

That's awesome. Congrats

[Kelly]

Thanks ladies! Had my first day of training today and boy do I have a lot to do! I have to get fingerprinted (for the third time in 2 years!), renew my First Aid/CPR certification, take a food handler's class, fill out a stack of paperwork, and get about 10 shots! Yikes! But it's all going to be worth it, I just know it! :)

[LauraA]

10 shots? LOL. Have you read Randy's blog, "Let's Get Physical"?

I missed ya being around today!

[Kelly]

No! I have to read that! Hehe. I don't know if it's 10 exactly...just estimating from the LONG list in my book. May be some I already have. My dad took my book hostage when he went on his gig tonight cause I left it in the car. Boo! So I'll have to look again when he gets home.

I know...it was weird being gone from here all day! Once work starts next week I'll be on more regularly again :) I'm training this week and the times are different every day, plus trying to get all this extra stuff out of the way before I'm too busy working to do it! :p Oh but guess what....we were going through the book in training today and I flipped to a page that said Vacation Request....so I should get to go on that trip guilt free afterall :)

[Kelly]

Hehehe omg I just read it! That's hilarious! Poor Randy! But I must admit it made me queezy just recalling when that very thing happened to me a few years ago! Right after 9/11, we had a blood drive on campus, and I had never given blood before, but I decided to do it and everything was going fine, then all of a sudden I felt the needle move inside me and my arm got really cold and couldn't breathe....I shot up and grabbed at the wall. Next thing I remember waking up and I had ice packs on my head, chest, and stomach and a bunch of nurses around me chanting "Miss Williams, are you ok? Miss Williams, can you hear me?" Needless to say I haven't given blood since!

[Kelly]

Boy have we gotten off topic here hehe...

I talked to my Kids Club boss today to let her know I got the job and she said "Yeah when I talked to Debbie (my new boss) I pretty much got the idea that you would be getting the job. I met with the staff last night and told them you wouldn't be coming back and they were all so sad!"

Why'd she have to tell me that???? That's not helping!!!! :( Oh well...I will be visiting them A LOT for sure! :)

[Kelly]

Gonna go off topic again hehe....I've been talking with mom lately about how to get myself out of debt. I'm way in over my head due to stupidity with credit cards and having to take out loans for school. Well we decided that the best thing for me to do for now would be to keep my Saturday job and just take my entire income from that job and put it towards one credit card and get it paid off, then go from there and start working on the next one.

Well I just checked my bank account and Sallie Mae charged me $30 less this month for my loan payment!!!! Wow! That will help SO much if that sticks for the coming months! I can put an additional $30/month towards my debt! Praise God!

[Kelly]

Had my second day of training today and got some bad news and some really cool news....

The bad news is that I can't go with my brother and his family on vacation next month :( New employees go on a 90 day provisional hire period with no vacation time available :( Boo!

But the cool news is that I will pretty much be creating my job! Right now the kids just play games and watch movies till the parents come but the director wants to work with me to create a schedule that includes homework time, activities, and devotional time. So cool! I'm very excited about that!

[LauraA]

It's not unusual at all to have that probation period (that is what it's called here). The state, where Dan works, requires a 6 month probation before any benefits kick in.

I'm glad you get to go to Creation!

Have you ever read any of Larry Burkett's books on finances? AWESOME! I can mail you one if you would like to read it.

[Kelly]

Well I expected a probation period, but honestly I think it's kinda insane that it's 90 days for a PT worker. Usually they're like 30-60 days for FT! But oh well...what can ya do? :p Luckily, Creation works out so that we leave Saturday and come back Sunday so I don't have to try and get off work.

I would love to read that book! Thanks! :) Do you still have my address?

[LauraA]

Yes, I have your address. I'll mail it out tomorrow if it can go first class, and the following day if it's priority. (Have to schedule a pick up.) You'll love it.

[Kelly]

Cool! Thanks so much! :)

[LauraA]

I have to change that to mailing it out on Monday. The book isn't here, which means I took it to church to put in Jeanette's library. I'll look on Sunday, then mail it on Monday, if no one has borrowed it. (A bunch of us had decided to put our books in our pastor's wife's office, so others could read them. Otherwise they sit in our homes and collect dust.)

[Kelly]

No problem :)

[Kelly]

Another huge praise report:

I have officially been named the lead teacher for the after school program! :D And the girl I trained with today was going to be with one of the day classes, but things happened just today while we were there and our boss asked her to be my co-teacher! SOOO happy! She's 10 years younger than me so I was worried there would be tension between us but she is SOOOOO amazing! She has some incredible ideas! I am so excited about this year! Praise God!!!!

Here's how it's going to work. We work with kids ranging from K-5th grade. There are only about 30 total, so it's not a huge program at all! They split it K-1 and 2-5. I have more experience with 2-5 and my coteacher, Courtney, has more experience with K-1 so we easily decided who would do which. I'll have about 18 kids and she'll have 11 or 12. We're going to spend Saturday developing our program. It's kinda cool we pretty much get to create our jobs!

I tell ya, I have needed a huge lesson in patience and boy am I getting it! For the past year and a half, I've just been dying to get that big time teaching job, but it never happened and I got frustrated, confused, depressed, and so on....but once I rededicated my life to God and started looking to Him instead of looking to that big job, boy did He provide! :D

[LauraA]

It sounds like an ideal job for you, Kelly! I'm so happy for you!!!!

[Kelly]

I need prayers you guys!

Things have gone way downhill at work. Our director officially resigned yesterday and she will be with us for 2 more weeks, but the assistant director (who is not very friendly) is now the acting director pending her certification when she will officially be named director. And I keep getting moved around so I go in each day unprepared, which doesn't help with the kids of course. To top it all off, my coteacher decided she wanted to go to a different class, so they brought back the old afterschool teacher to work with me.

Then yesterday we had an incident where a little girl was messing with a table and it fell on her and smashed her hand. She was hysterical but they refused to call her parents...they told us to just calm her down. I was very upset at this. I mean I understand you can't call the parents EVERY time a kid gets hurt, but I knew this was bad. I stayed with her and rubbed her back until she actually fell asleep.

Then about half an hour before I go in to work this morning, I get a call from my boss asking all about what had happened (she was out sick yesterday). So I explained it all to her. Then she said that they had to report it to the state because her parents thought it was broken and took her to the hospital. Praise God it's not broken, but her fingers were severely bruised! :( I literally went to work in tears today! I kept trying to hold it together, but I couldn't. I just prayed that God help calm me and get me through the day. I finally calmed down just in time for the kids to show up, but things were crazy because they split our class and had half of them upstairs with the other teacher and the other half with me downstairs. Well the kids wouldn't go where I told them to go, so it was just mass confusion. I finally got everyone where they needed to be, but then my kids would NOT listen to anything I said. I told one girl 7 times to stop climbing on the basketball net. She refused to listen! Then we had another bad incident.....

There were people there setting up for a wedding reception and they had a kid there who went nuts and started chasing one of my students with pliers....I just didn't even know what to do. I couldnt tell my student to stop running cause the kid would catch up to him, so I just let him keep running to get away, and I tried getting the kids' parents attention to get him away but couldn't....so I finally started to go after the kid and he caught up to my student and stabbed him in the arm with the pliers! :( I tell you, I wanted to just break down at that point. I was DONE! I texted my mom and told her I quit. I was through with that job and I was gonna start looking elsewhere. Then after work, my new boss told me they were gonna split us the way they had originally planned to and they were going to give me kinder and 1st grade and we get our own classroom. Praise God! That's the main problem...we've got these kids in a huge gym and it's not easy to keep control of them when they're allowed to run around and play. So I think with these changes (provided they actually stick this time) things will be MUCH better. We'll be confined to a nice small room where the kids can't run around crazy! They'll have to save it for recess time. I just hope I haven't gotten myself into more than I can handle! Please just pray that I find wisdom and strength to finally get some stability in this job. Or if I need to get out of it, I pray that God reveals that to me!

[Kelly]

Still need prayers! Yesterday things started out so great! The kids were awesome! Then somehow, it all just fell apart. They just went crazy! Then to top it all off, I closed the door on one of my girls' hand! :( I've been sick to my stomach since I left work last night. Didn't sleep hardly at all. Had horrible dreams when I finally DID go to sleep. Woke up in a terrible mood, even more sick to my stomach. Then my phone rang and it was the school...I didn't even want to answer it. All they said is that they want me to come in a half hour early today. I don't know if they just need me to cover a class for a bit, or what, but I could not have a bigger sinking feeling in my stomach right now! :( I just can't do this much longer! My mom keeps saying maybe I need to be doing something else if it's affecting me this badly, but I can't imagine doing anything else! :( Help!

[LauraA]

Oh Kelly! It sounds like you really have had a rough time! I'm so sorry. I'm praying for you now. Let us know how it goes today, ok?

Hugs,
Laura

[Kelly]

Well unfortunately it was worse than I thought! I arrived at work only to find out that Courtney (my old coteacher) and I are being investigated by the state for the accident that happened last week! I'm scared! We had to write down word for word what happened that day, but the thing is, neither of us saw what actually happened. When we looked over, the table was falling to the ground and she started screaming. So already that's cause for concern. When something this serious happens and TWO teachers didn't see it.....doesn't look so good! Plus it's been a week so it's hard to remember every little detail, but I did the best I could! Our boss was sure to let us know that her parents have no ill feelings toward us at all...they're not the ones who reported us. It's just that when you have a student go to the doctor because of something that happens in your care, the school MUST report it to the state. So the sinking feeling I had when I got to work only got worse! But my boss assured me that everything would work out, so I'm trying not to worry.

As for the other girl who got hurt yesterday, I think she's gonna be ok :) Whew! That one is absolutely my fault because I'm the one who closed the door on her fingers! :( So I was more worried about that than anything!

But, as for my day with the kids today....so much better! When my boss and I were talking, she said she's had complaints from the parents about my class being out of control, which it has been a little bit....but I noticed something today that may clear it up. I make them clean after everything we do....so they're "running" around the room cleaning, climbing under the tables...things like that. Well we were cleaning today when one of my moms showed up and I looked at her then looked back at the class and thought "Well this doesn't look good" hehehe. So I'm wondering if the parents who complained were parents who came in when we were cleaning. Hmmmm....

Either way, today was a really good day. No injuries. Kids mostly under control (had one girl who was just hysterical all day long). And we had fun! :) Sad thing is that I had a big birthday party planned for our birthday girl, but she got sick so she didn't even come! Birthday party tomorrow! :) Then I have something really cool planned for a 9/11 memorial. Should be a great day!

[DawnAurora]

Praying for you, Kelly.

[Kelly]

Thanks Dawn! Things are getting better! Had a great day today. Long day too! They had early release today because of the Hurricane....closed all the schools to use as shelters. So we had 5 hours with the kids instead of the normal 2 1/2....it was interesting! Poor things were so tired!

Here are some pics of my classroom...this was right after I moved into it, so it's still awfully bare. I've started to redecorate little by little, so I'll update with more pics as I go along :)

View from main door:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a324/xangakelly/classroom3.jpg

Views from gym:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a324/xangakelly/classroom2.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a324/xangakelly/classroom1.jpg

[LauraA]

Is everything going ok at work, Kelly? You've sure been on my mind the past few days! Praying for your safety and total fairness with the investigation. God is with you!

[Kelly]

It's gotten much better in the classroom....I've felt more organized lately and noticed that in itself helped a lot! :p As for the whole investigation, I'm not sure where they stand, but I haven't heard anything since that day.

[LauraA]

Well, that's good. It must have been scary. Nice pictues. Can't wait to see the updates you've made in there. What fun!