Reflecting on 2011

One of the greatest things about blogging is that I’ve already got a way to share my reflections on the past year; below is this year’s letter.

Each year we write this Christmas letter, we are privileged to be able to reflect on how God’s worked in our lives not only in the past year but now well beyond that.  God has a history of leading his people to new places in their everyday lives and in their faith journey.  2011 was no exception…

God led us to a variety of new places in the Wild Wild West this past year.  In January, we revisited Zion NP, this time with Keith’s sister and brother-in-law; we also went to Bryce NP for the first time!  Later (and more locally), we hiked around Red Rock Canyon with Keith’s brother’s family (minus their two youngest) in April and again at Thanksgiving with Keith’s parents.  God also opened up time for us to stand on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, stay a couple nights in Flagstaff and check out Sedona, Arizona one afternoon all over Memorial Day weekend.  We enjoyed celebrating Becky’s sister’s high school graduation in June and her visit with us in July.  In August, we drive 1700 miles through California, stopping through Sequoia NP, staying 3 nights in Yosemite, walking through downtown San Francisco, staying overnight at a Bed & Breakfast in Monterrey, driving down along the California coast on Hwy 1, and finally getting to see family in Valencia before coming home.  We returned to southern California a few weeks later to spend Labor Day weekend with friends over Labor Day.  Also in November, we stood on the west rim of the Grand Canyon with Becky’s aunt and uncle; Becky also seized the opportunity to fly to St. Louis to be with her family and cheer her sister on in the NCAA Division III Elite Eight Volleyball Championships.

God also led us to new places in our professional lives throughout 2011.  In January, Keith took (and subsequently passed) his Step 3 Boards en route to becoming a 2^nd year Family Medicine resident in July and obtaining his state medical license in November.  Becky also passed a number of teacher certification and training exams and took on the responsibility of teaching 4 dance classes (incl. the dance team) and an AP Physics class this academic year.  In October, she had the chance to take the dance team to the Shakespeare Utah Festival where they placed 3^rd!  How she manages to balances her left and right brains still amazes Keith.  God has been leading us in our personal lives this year as well.  In April, Becky flew back to NJ to be with her family and extended family in mourning and celebrating the life of her grandfather.  Then earlier this fall, she came down with a GI illness that lasted for weeks but finally resolved after going gluten-free.  It’s been tough at times to trust God through these life-changing events, but He reminds us that “in all things, [He] works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

We want to thank each of you for thinking of us and supporting us over the past year – through your very presence, words of encouragement, and prayers offered to God on our behalf.  And whether you’re near or far this holiday season, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Vegas!

With love,

Keith & Becky

 

“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”

Psalm 62:1-2

Keep Calm and Carry On

Since I finally admitted to myself over the summer that I’ve got an real anxiety issue, I adopted “Keep Calm and Carry On” as this year’s theme. It’s also appropriate because I lived in England for 7 months and understand the culture behind the saying.

First it started with the journal:

‘I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.’ Psalm 34:4

Then one of my awesome friends provided me with a bookmark and a glittery card:

‘Cast all your anxiety on Him for he cares for you.’ 1 Peter 5:7

And then TJMAXX spoiled me with the matching mug!

‘You, O Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in you.’ Isaiah 26:3

All I’m missing is a poster – feel free to donate to the collection :)

In all seriousness, I have been caught by scripture in which God tells his people to be clam, do not fear, and trust in him. Who knew the Queen was so close? It should have been, “Keep Calm, Trust in God, and Carry On”!!

Linking up to a new party today with Women Living Well:

Why I Still Live Out Of Four Bags

Every once and awhile I think about changing the name of the blog. After all, we’re actually settled (for once) and will even be celebrating the longest we’ve lived in one place (14 months) in August!

No more four bag living for me…

Until I realize that I’ll always be living out of four bags. If I’ve learned anything over the last few years, it’s been to always live with the “Four Bags Attitude”. I should always be ready to get up, go, and follow God’s calling.

Every time I think of listening and responding to God’s plan for my life, I always think of Abraham (back in the day when he was still Abram in Genesis 12):

The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you…So Abram went, as the LORD had told him

So Abram went. He didn’t ask all his friends what he should do before making a decision or even argue with God about the merits of going; he just went. I have always admired him for that.

That’s why I still have the attitude of living out of four bags…I want to be ready to try new things, meet new people, see new places, and follow God’s plan regardless of whether its convenient or jives with my own compulsive planning.

Listen to Me Continually

Here is today’s devotional from “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young:

LISTEN TO ME CONTINUALLY,I have much to communicate to you, so many people and situations in need of prayer. I am training you to set your mind on Me more and more, tuning out distractions through the help of My Spirit.

Walk with Me in holy trust, responding to My initiatives rather than trying to make things fit your plans. I died to set you free, and that includes freedom from compulsive planning. When your mind spins with a multitude of thoughts, you cannot hear My voice. A mind preoccupied with planning pays homage to the idol of control. Turn from this idolatry back to Me. Listen to Me and live abundantly!

• “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36
• “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. ” Proverbs 19:21
• “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

Definitely hit me hard this morning. “Compulsive planning” would definitely be a great way to describe my habitually need/desire to be in control.

…

It just occurred to me that Good Friday is an excellent day to meditate on my desire to control where life goes.

Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus away. Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull. There they nailed him to the cross. Two others were crucified with him, one on either side, with Jesus between them. And Pilate posted a sign over him that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” (John 19: 16-19)

After praying all night, Jesus submitted his desire for “the plan” to go in a different direction to what he knew was better: God’s will. He trusted that God had a better plan and that this plan was for the good of all eternity. Jesus willingly went to the cross out of his unwavering trust in God’s sovereignty and faithfulness; what would I be willing to do?

I have been realizing I do not trust God with my life – both in mundane and bigger-picture things.

Now the hard part is to be committed to changing my attitude and trusting more.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation [including my compulsive need for control], will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Christmas Reflections

I’ve been reflecting on Christmas traditions recently and was inspired to write about it by Clover Lane’s post today. As the Air Force will now be determining the feasibility of going “home” for Christmas, we’ve got to be more proactive in starting our own traditions so that they are in place when we have our own kids (some day, no hints here!). Here are some things we are doing, have done with our families, and would like to do in the future:

CURRENT TRADITIONS:

• Decorating the day after Christmas
• Lots of  baking (mostly for other people since we’re traveling)
• Cloth Advent Calendar
• Advent wreath (due to the chaos this year, it never got lit, but it was a lovely addition to our table)
• Christmas music after Thanksgiving
• Putting our gifts to other people under our own tree
• Checking out the Christmas lights in the surrounding neighborhoods
• Celebrating with friends in addition to family
• Working with City Mission and our church to provide local people with homemade Christmas meals and Christmas parties!
• Sending out Christmas cards pictures from the past year with a letter of things we are thankful for, have overcome, and look forward to!

FAMILY TRADITIONS:

• Christmas Eve service at our childhood church
• Braving the cold two weeks before Christmas to cut down our own Christmas tree!
• Traditional Italian Christmas Eve Dinner at my parents’ house to include gingerbread house building! (I think I’ll have to write a post all about this evening including pictures)
• Ornament exchange with hubby’s family including (usually) homemade ornaments based on a significant event of the last year; my mom always got us a Precious Moments ornament for each year
• Hubby’s family also used to make luminaries for the church driveway and neighborhood
• New PJs on Christmas Eve from my parents (now that I’m married I by myself a new pair to wear for school spirit week :)
• Watching Muppet Christmas Carol when there’s only “one more sleep ’til Christmas” or when we decorate the tree
• Sticky bun and/or egg souffle breakfast with leftovers from the Christmas Eve dinner for lunch
• Keeping things quiet and slow – we stayed at one place for the whole day!
• German pickle hunt – you hide a pickle ornament in the tree and whoever finds it gets an extra gift. Since there were only two of us, we each had our own gift
• My dad would always hide at least one of our gifts and send us on a thought-filled treasure hunt!

FUTURE TRADITIONS:

• Hosting our own Christmas Eve dinner
• Reading Scripture and lighting our advent wreath in preparation and anticipation of Christmas
• Luminaries with our own children
• I just found out about this “Elf on the Shelf” thing and I can’t wait to do it – since hubby doesn’t believe in Santa anymore, I’ll have to wait until we’ve got kids :)
• We’ve already got some traditions from my German and Italian roots, so I’d like to include more from our English, Scottish, and Irish backgrounds
• Treasure hunt gifts
• Kids decorating their doors or their half of the room for Christmas (inspired by my 2nd period class)
• My dad waited until I was about 10 years old to institute the “no waking parents until 6am” rule, but I’m thinking that’s going to start as soon as our kids can tell time!
• Cutting down a fresh Christmas tree when we aren’t traveling
• Decorating with Christmas cards from the past

Now I’m starting to think about New Year’s traditions – come back next week!

One step closer to being a “real” teacher!

Kohls is giving away money to the schools who get the most votes, so head over to this link to vote for Sunrise Mountain High School!

Sunrise Mountain High School is entering into its 2nd school year. While it is in a new building, it serves a student body who are considered “under-privilaged” and come from families who are not involved in their children’s education. I am excited to join the Sunrise Mountain faculty this year buy teaching 4 Physics courses as well as supporting 12th grade students who have not passed the state science exam yet. I know that a grant like this will give students the opportunities they deserve to explore the world through the lens of science!

Check out the pictures of my classroom to help me with ideas for getting my first classroom set up and decorated!

Also, I’ll be writing a series on my first year as a teacher at Just Call Me Ms Frizzle, so please sign up for posts to be emailed to you or subscribe to the feed in order to keep up with me and my class!

Little Rapper

I was walking down the street the other day behind this kid who must have been 8 years old.

He was one of the most fiery kids I’ve ever seen. He was freestyle rapping the entire block and every time he passed a parking meter, car, or other stationary object, he’d approach it as if he was telling it off with his rapping. He reminded me of the kid on the Doritos commercial:

The best part was once he realized I’d been watching him, he didn’t care, just went on free styling.

[Read more at My Life In Four Bags]

ESPN Zone = Tradition

My friend Morgan and I have been going on friend-dates to ESPN Zone since we were tiny little freshman in college (I wish I had a picture to show, but it’s packed away in a box somewhere!). We go and order the same thing every time: she gets the artichoke dip and I get the sliders. Then we split everything. We used to get the cookie sundae as well, but I’ll discuss that in a minute.

We took my husband there before “we” started dating him. That’s how big of a deal it is for us. Many milestones in our lives have been celebrated there.

Back to the cookie sundae.

Nothing quite like it: hot, melty, chewy chocolate chip cookie topped with hot fudge, ice cream, caramel, and whipped cream. Oh yes, it’s even better than it sounds.

Well, since we’re both on grad student budgets, frequent trips to ESPN Zone aren’t realistic. So, we figured out how to do it at home:

Some premade cookie dough, ice cream, and Hershey chocolate sauce bring back all our warm and gooey memories of ESPN Zone.

See…tired grad students  can find tasty euphoria, even on a budget! Neither of us have the fancy pan ESPN Zone uses when they serve it, but we’re desperate, so we’ll use anything we can stick in the oven!

ESPN Zone should totally market this. They’d make a fortune. If it had existed, I would have registered for an ESPN Zone cookie sundae set when I got married. No jokes.

So at this point, you should run out to the grocery store and buy the ingredients listed above, but if you’ve never had one, you should get to ESPN Zone ASAP to start with the real deal.

Ah, I’m drooling

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[Read more at My Life In Four Bags]

My Life In Aladdin Verse

Last night hubby and I had dessert with a couple that has been extremely faithful to us throughout the last few years of our crazy life. We were sharing some of our anxieties regarding moving out to Las Vegas and our friends gave us great advice.

“You know that part in Aladdin when he’s up in the tower with the princess?”

Wait a minute, hard core advice on dealing with hard transitions in life coming from Aladdin? Awesome.

“All the palace guards are chasing after them and their stuck up there. He turns to her and he says, ‘Do you trust me?’.

She says, ‘What?’.

He asks again, ‘Do you trust me?’

She says, ‘Yes.’

He says, ‘Then juuuuuuuuuuummmpp.’”.

Brilliance. What our dear friends aptly described was the fact that we’re about to take a huge leap of faith together, but at least we’re together and we trust each other. I’m so glad to be taking a huge risk with my best friend!

For your entertainment:

(I realize this isn’t the clip I was talking about it, but this one’s still funny. I love Abu)

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[Read more at My Life In Four Bags]

This Is My Temporary Home

This song came on the radio on my ride home tonight:

I’ve heard this song several times before, but this time it really struck a chord with me while thinking about the devastation in Haiti right now. Life can be really hard. I have hope, knowing that after this life I’ll be heading to my forever home, but that doesn’t always make the trials of life less painful. The last year of my own life has certainly be difficult, but in light of the situation after the earthquakes this week, I am speechless with thankfulness for all I have been blessed with.

I have been extremely selfish lately. My days have been consumed with complaining about the discomfort of the cold I’ve had for awhile, stressing out over crafty projects that aren’t going my way, and obsession over how many reads and comments my blogs get. That’s not the attitude I want to have about life. The past few months have left me weary from living in a suitcase, but I need to remember that even when my living conditions are temporary and ever changing, they are still more prosperous and fortunate than many people throughout the world.

That led me to mull over what I want my thoughts to be occupied with. Instead of fretting over whether blog readers are participating in SocialVibe activities to raise money for charity, I should be consuming myself with how to serve the others around me; whether my friend needs a hug, a stranger needs a smile, or a small island needs the support to rebuild their nation, I want to have the attitude of someone who is willing to serve. I believe that we are responsible to help one another by giving time, money, hugs, tears, sweat, etc.

This song came to mind. It is by Tim Hughes, an artist I admire tons. He led worship at the church I attended in London and has been one of the most genuinely humbly people I have ever observed. I would consider the lyrics of this song to be something I want to model my life after:

So instead of participating in silly giveaways or coercing readers to care about what I care about, tonight I’m going to take time to pray for Haiti and seek guidance as to how I can help. If you’re considering your role in helping the people of Haiti, consider making a donation to Doctors Without Borders. They are an organization with integrity; one I trust to utilize all donations towards the work they are doing in the most efficient way possible.

While I’ll continue to support Charity:Water, because I believe their work is extremely important and because I feel that it is vital to support causes you believe in over a long period of time and not just as a short-term fad, my focus will be on Haiti for the next few days, weeks, and months.

I am grateful for all the ways I have been provided for and cannot imagine the shock and grief Haitians are feeling right now.

If you’re still thinking about how you can help the people of Haiti, ABCNews has some suggestions.