I have been up and wide awake for the last two hours. This is bad, bad news. I have a conference to be at later today that will take my entire day. I am hoping I will be able to focus. This is a transitionally challenged post because it is pretty much stream of concious. You follow? Probably not, but that's okay. My Mafia idea has mixed reviews. BigShow says we should join his mafia because he gives minis. I think what he is really trying to say is that he is the godfather. Dangerous man, that BigShow. He is one of my favorite Xangans. I think I want a coffee. I just don't want to get up and actually run the coffee post. Something just thudded in my house. Creepy. I hope the cat just knocked something down. Yeah. At 4:18 a.m. those are pretty much my thoughts. Well, other than being frustrated because I can't figure out how to get a video downloaded to my computer. Stinkin' Facebook. I loathe thy complicated ridiculousness.

Alright. I am going to attempt to go back to bed. If I fail at that, I don't know what I will do. I can't pop in Big Bang Theory because I just sent it back to Netflix. (I am sooo married to Leonard! And, ironically, his best friend reminds me very much of Sheldon. haha)

Off to get some ZZZs.

As a teacher, I am so incredibly proud of the group of 150 students who met the five Westboro Baptist Church protestors outside of Sidwell. If you aren't aware, good ol' WBC and Fred Phelps were at their protesting ways again outside of the school that President Obama's daughters attend. Let me say that again: OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL that the President's DAUGHTERS (MINOR DAUGHTERS) ATTEND.

In true form, the WBC protestors brought their "God hates you" signs to the school. They did not anticipate being met by the students; I am sure. I don't know who organized the students together to meet them, but I am so proud of those youth. Let it be a reminder to those of us adults who feign fear for the future. Our world is in good hands. There are lots of good kiddos out there.

Here's the LINK.

That's all.

KC

It isn't common knowledge, on Xanga anyway, what's been going on in my life. And, I have promised an update, so update I shall this evening.

Many of you know, by merit of interacting with me over the past four years, that I used to teach high school English II Pre-AP. It was a career I loved but chose to put on hold after I had my second baby. I do not, for a second, regret this decision. I believe this decision held my marriage together through its hardest year--the one just which just passed.

Many of you also know that my husband was pursuing a career that kept him out of the house anywhere between 60 and 80 hours a week--usually closer to 80. In this career, one which ostensibly should not have been dangerous, he had an ex-employee bring a firearm to his business and threaten him--an employee who now sits in a Texas prison convicted of two counts of capital murder, murders he committed less than six months after threatening my husband. Needless, to say Hubby stayed stressed out and overtired...

until about three weeks ago.

About three weeks ago, his company shut down his location firing every person there--right on up to Hubby's position. Thus, Hubby received the blessing of being fired (something rather interesting for a person who excelled at his job and has never once been written up in any position he's ever held).

Yes, you read that right: I called it a blessing.

The week he was fired, Hubby and I were asked to submit our resumes for a youth position at our church. The position is part-time, and Hubby and I really had to seek counsel before agreeing to submit our resumes. We have been in ministry before--albeit in a different denomination--and we were trepidatious about stepping back into that role. Then, along came the firing. I told my friends that I had prayed that week telling God I was laying out my wool and if he wanted me to consider this youth ministry thing he needed to get it wet. Then, it came aflood.

In seriousness, old doors are closing--doors of strain, heartache, silent irritations; doors of exhaustion, fear, anger; doors of negativity. And, new doors are opening. Some of them familiar. Some of them not.

We are familiar with needing to trust in the daily provisions we are given. We are unfamiliar with having to do that with kiddos in the picture. We are familiar with ministry. We are unfamiliar with having to do that with kiddos, too, actually.

When it is all said and done, though, these doors--their openings and closings, and even some of their revolvings are a good thing. Hubby and I lived a life in which he was miserable and we were subsequently affected as a couple and as a family. It wasn't fun. You know, within four days--FOUR DAYS--of Hubby being off work, I noticed him being what I affectionately called "the Hubby I used to know." He was relaxed, making jokes, talking to people outside of work. He has become himself again. Consequently, I am more myself than I have been in years, too.

And, this week, we accepted the position at our church. It doesn't pay much, and it certainly won't pay our bills, but it will be good nonetheless because it is about so much more than simply money and stress. We will do this bivocationally. Hubby will, hopefully, find a new full-time job soon that will pay our bills, and I am going to take on more substituting jobs and going to hunt down a position, hopefully, teaching junior high English next school year.

So, the update on the Dubs is this:

We may not know if we will have a Christmas, but we know we will have our needs met. We may not know when Hubby or I will land a full time gig, but we know that no matter the short-term stress, we are already seeing improvements in our marriage and the lives of our daughters by merit of both parents being around the girls.

We have been, quite ironically, blessed by this.

And that, friends and bloggers, is the update. What's new with you?