Christmas Eve is tomorrow. Bryan and I drove up this Monday to begin the holidays with my family. This is the first Christmas that we all have realized that life is changing. Since mom and dad moved to the Ft. Worth area we will not being doing our usual Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my granny in Saltillo,TX. We are only able to go Christmas day, since we live farther and time lines are not working out. Cara may only spend part of the holiday with us because she has a new squeeze who she is working on sharing Christmas time with. His name is Tanner and he is a rodeo cowboy. Who ever thought Cara would end up with a guy who does steer wrestling and calf roping almost every weekend. She was the one who always hated getting dirty and messy when we helped out on the farm as kids. Jordan will be with mom and dad only until 2 days after Christmas, because he is driving down to Galveston to meet up with his girlfriend to meet the family at the New Year's party.
Having all these changes is making mom and dad realize that from here on out Christmas will not be the same. They will soon be the grandparents that we go to instead of us all going to our granny's. I know that mom is having a tough time with it. Mom's family is so close. I am the first to really venture out. Jordan has followed suit as well, but luckly Cara is still near all of our family.
The older I get, the more I appreciate the time I get to spend with my family. My siblings and I all have our own lives which makes it very hard to see each other and spend time together. I am in San Antonio with Bryan working on school and trying to start our own family. Cara is in Paris dating Tanner and starting her own path in life away from mom and dad. Jordan is in College Station and is very active in the student life their through his buisness fraternity and his leadership organzation he is a member and mentor in. Not to even mention Bryan's brother who lives in Atlanta. We get to see him when he has to work at a sporting event near us, but other than that we rarely get to spend time with him or his fiancee Lauren.
Christmas is one of the few times in a year that you get to see those that you love and spend time with one another. I love that part the most of all. I am going to end this blog now, so I can go spend some time with my family some more before Christmas is over.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Inspiration from Unexpected Source
A few weeks ago I found out that a student from last year in one of my most fun math classes to teach was diagnosed with cancer. I remember the day I heard it. One student that I had last year came in my room crying her eyes out and couldn't even breathe. When she finally calmed down, she uttered the words "Liz has cancer". Liz was one of the handful of students I had kept up with since last school year. I knew that she was going to the doctor because her knee had been hurting for a while. The doctor said that her pain was caused by a tumor in her leg. When I first heard this I thought surely this is a rumor that has gone terribly wrong. Later that night after talking to a close friend from work who also taught Liz, I found out that the story was true. I think I spent a good 45 minutes just curled up crying. I even told my husband I had to get out of the house and find something to take my mind off of what had just been confirmed.
I kept thinking about how does Liz feel right now. What is going through her mind? Liz, is one of those all around students: Cheerleader, on the volleyball team, on the basketball team, very smart young girl. I tried to imagine what would I do if I were in her shoes and tried to think how would I want people to act. Well after all of my wondering, I got my glimpse today of how she feels and what her thoughts are.
One of Liz's closest friends came by my room today like she does regularly and asked if I wanted to purchase a Liz Strong bracelet. I obviously did. The bracelet is hot pink and had a blogspot webpage listed on it. Liz had started a blog about her thoughts and updates on what was going on in her life with her chemo, doctor visits and daily life. I read the blogs that she had posted and realized how amazingly strong she was. She spoke of prayer, God, and how she wanted us to think of others that were in need of support. Liz has become a great inspiration for me. She seems to have her eyes set upon God. It reminds me of the verse in 2 Timothy that I used to always say when relating sports to your religious walk through life with God. "Let us run the race that is set before us looking onto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith."
To me this sums up our entire aspect of life. We always feel we are in control, but God has already laid out a path for us. Our job is to focus on him and his will. If we would just listen to him, we will recieve more blessings than we could ever know. I mean he knows what is best for us and what will truely make us whole. Liz could have gotten angery at the world, or focused on the pain and fear of what would happen. Instead, she is looking at this as a journey that God is leading her through. Who knows what the purpose of the journey is and where it will lead, but she knows that God is in control. Last year, Liz touched my heart as one the students I blessed to get to teach and get to know. This year, Liz is my inspiration to keep my eyes focused on the one who has already laid my life's path for me. If she can look something like cancer in the face with strong faith. There is no excuse why I shouldn't be doing it too.
I kept thinking about how does Liz feel right now. What is going through her mind? Liz, is one of those all around students: Cheerleader, on the volleyball team, on the basketball team, very smart young girl. I tried to imagine what would I do if I were in her shoes and tried to think how would I want people to act. Well after all of my wondering, I got my glimpse today of how she feels and what her thoughts are.
One of Liz's closest friends came by my room today like she does regularly and asked if I wanted to purchase a Liz Strong bracelet. I obviously did. The bracelet is hot pink and had a blogspot webpage listed on it. Liz had started a blog about her thoughts and updates on what was going on in her life with her chemo, doctor visits and daily life. I read the blogs that she had posted and realized how amazingly strong she was. She spoke of prayer, God, and how she wanted us to think of others that were in need of support. Liz has become a great inspiration for me. She seems to have her eyes set upon God. It reminds me of the verse in 2 Timothy that I used to always say when relating sports to your religious walk through life with God. "Let us run the race that is set before us looking onto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith."
To me this sums up our entire aspect of life. We always feel we are in control, but God has already laid out a path for us. Our job is to focus on him and his will. If we would just listen to him, we will recieve more blessings than we could ever know. I mean he knows what is best for us and what will truely make us whole. Liz could have gotten angery at the world, or focused on the pain and fear of what would happen. Instead, she is looking at this as a journey that God is leading her through. Who knows what the purpose of the journey is and where it will lead, but she knows that God is in control. Last year, Liz touched my heart as one the students I blessed to get to teach and get to know. This year, Liz is my inspiration to keep my eyes focused on the one who has already laid my life's path for me. If she can look something like cancer in the face with strong faith. There is no excuse why I shouldn't be doing it too.
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