The Holidays are upon us!!

A couple weeks ago I woke up to see a very surprising status update on facebook. My friend Sara had gone into labor three weeks early!!! Needless to say I rushed to the hospital and was able to take a few "day old" pictures of the new little princess. 8 days later we had her "official" first photo shoot. Sophia's pictures turned out to be the second new born that I was blessed to be given the chance to take pictures of. If you are interested in checking out the pictures you can find some of my favorites on my photography web page that Jason helped me to build. www.erinmphoto.com
Other than taking pictures of these adorable little babies, I have been busy with work and discovering every day why I love my job. Yesterday we had our first afternoon class, and when I came into the classroom after completing my recess duty, the littlest boy in my class got a really big smile on his face and he said "Ernn!" His greeting melted my heart and reminded me for what seems to be the millionth time why I love my job.

Life

First off I apologize that I have not taken the time to sit and type out a entry. I have been soo busy this month. Mid September I decorated cakes for my Cousin’s children’s birthday party. Because the oldest son LOVES soccer that’s what I made them.

The same day as their party my friend Becky and I threw our mutual friend Sara a baby shower, so obviously I made the cake for that as well AND I was the “photographer” for the event. It was a blast and the cake turned out great  (If I do say so myself)

After that, everything with Girl scouts has come into full force. I’ve been having meeting after meeting. This past week I had a meeting with the parents and talked to them about what I have planned for the year, and how I would like things to run. I also was blessed with a CO-leader who has past Girl Scout experience so if I need something done she’ll do it for me. Next week our regular meetings start and I’m really looking forward to it. I was recruited to have input for the new overseas camping manual for the Girl Scouts also. Which hasn’t been too hard, just needed to do a bit of research.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new job! It’s such a blessing every day to see that I am in one way or another helping and blessing the lives of these little ones while they learn skills that they are going to need to use for the rest of their lives. They make me laugh with their silly antics, and shout for joy when something “clicks” and they are able to do something we’ve been trying to teach them. No matter how tired I am at the end of the day, I praise God that he’s brought me here to do this job. I now truly understand why my dad would fall asleep on the living room floor at 7 o’clock at night.
As for my photography, I have been blessed with the opportunity to take pictures of a new born baby boy. Also my friend Sara gave birth early to her beautiful baby girl, and I was able to go to the hospital and take pictures of her on her “birthday” and will be doing her official photo shoot on Sunday. I am definitely busy, and I am learning the important lesson of scheduling and not over booking myself to the point I make myself exhausted.

The First day of School...

For most was today. "My" students won't be starting until Wednesday. However today was the first day that I was in charge of "Recess". The First Grade session was ok, the only real problem we had was a few of the kids (mainly the girls) were climbing on the wire fencing around the soccor field. The second graders however... The first thing I personally had to deal with was a little girl who became very overwhelmed because she didn't know what was going on. She had only been on the island for one month, and she hadn't made any friends yet. I was trying to let her know that everything would be ok and that she would for sure be picked up from Recess by her teacher, and the poor thing finally burst out that she wanted her mommy and started crying. Thankfully I had my sunglasses on so no one was able to see that I was fighting back tears of my own. My heart just broke for her, thankfully I managed to keep the tears at bay. And next I had a little boy tell on another little boy for hitting his friend in the head with the basketball. Which after making him realize that he would feel bad if someone hit him in the head for annoying them that he probably made the other child feel bad, and to next time just tell them to "leave me alone", and if they didn't stop bothering him to come get an adult. Next was a little boy who'se friends were getting "beat up" by a group of girls. Alls it was the girls all like the one boy and think he's cuite so they were bugging him.. however again the same method of "if after telling them to leave you alone they still don't, either come get an adult or take them all to the adult." HAHA I walked away from today thinking "I finally know how all of the Teacher Assistants at my school felt!!"

School is starting!!

Last Wednesday was my first day working at my new job! I'm hearing terms like IEP, and cognitive development being used in context with the kids, and I get all excited because I know what they are talking about; I just haven't heard those words spoken at all since I left Geneva. The first couple days was spent just getting the classroom set up the way the teacher wants it to be. My teacher just arrived on the island the Monday before so she was going through all of the "Welcome to the island" stuff that every one has to go through. So our room really didn't get set up the way she wanted it until Friday, however we did manage to get A Lot of work done. Monday we will be going on home visits to meet the kids who will be in our classroom, and talk with their parents and just see them where they are most comfortable, their natural-home environment. I'm really excited about doing this job, and being able to work with these kids, its definitely a answer to prayers that I was able to find a job that is in the working field that I studied in college.

An update on my surgery recovery, everything is going very well. I'm still a little congested, but as long as I keep up with the sinus rinses I definitely feel much better. According to the Dr. I have healed very nicely. And if I ever have any sinus problems again in the near future I am to give him an email and he will see if he can't put me through as a "walk in".

Girl Scouts will start next month, I still need to get in touch with someone to get help with working on a budget for my troop, but I think that once that I have that done I'll probably "hit" the ground running with that. There will be 9 girls in my troop and so far I have figured out what the first three badges that we will be doing are. The rest I thought I would just let the girls pick out on their own at the first meeting. I just have to start contacting people to see if they would be willing to come and talk to the girls about the specific things that are required for the different badges.

Hopefully I won't go multiple weeks again without posting something, but I'm sure you all understand that life can get pretty busy when we least expect it :)

The Rainbow...

“Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." Genesis 9:16

Last Tuesday I had my Pre-Operation doctors visit, for the sinus surgery that I am to undergo this coming Thursday. While the Dr. went through the list of “risks” and told me what I needed to pay attention to, I will admit I got slightly nervous. The more I thought about it I’ll admit I was put into a rather weird depressed mood. I mean who wouldn’t after being told that “If you feel any pressure behind your eyes get to the E.R as fast as you can; because its blood pooling behind your eye cavity and if you have that back there for an hour you will be blind permanently.” And to top it off there is a 5% chance that the Dr. might accidently cut the lining between the eyes and the sinus’s or the lining between the brain and the sinus’s and the worse case scenario is that I’d die. I walked away from that appointment with a lot on my mind.
The next day I went to Araha Beach at 8:30 in the morning to just relax and have a talk with God. This is the reasoning for the bible verse, because while I sat on the beach I saw to the south a rainbow in amongst rain and storm clouds. I was immediately reminded of God’s promise to Moses that once he saw the rainbow he would know that everything would be ok again. I walked away from the beach that morning feeling so much peace that I haven’t even thought about everything that could go wrong since.
I ask for prayers this week, that I don’t get too nervous the days leading up to my surgery. Also please pray for Jason, he requested to take time off of work to take care of me. While we are looking forward to being able to spend time together, I know as well as the next person that taking care of someone can get frustrating, and Jason is more than likely going to need some patience.

Hello Heat!!

Growing up in PA I don’t think I ever really experienced what a “tropical summer” would be like. Being in North Carolina however, temperatures reached over 120 during the summer and there really was no breeze. I think I prefer Okinawa’s heat thou. Yes it’s really bad and after being outside maybe five minutes you feel like you’ve need to take a shower all over again, but there’s a breeze every now and then that you can feel coming from the north that’s always just slightly cooler than the breeze coming from any other direction. The other good thing is it’s not a shock to one’s system when you step into the ocean. It really feels like bath water, I LOVE IT!!
I’ll be honest and tell you that when I was already working on my tan in March I inwardly giggled. Back home they were still dealing with snow, when the only precipitation I had to worry about was rain! Now that it’s July I look like I’ve been kissed by the sun rather than slapped and assaulted. The last time I was this tan I had to go use a tanning bed and sunless tanning lotion. Now the only thing I need to use is actual sun screen and after sun lotion!! No one is going to be commenting on how pale I look any time soon!!

Wow...

It always amazes me just how busy life can get when you don’t realize it. The last full week of June Jason and I went to Okuma to celebrate our third anniversary and to finally have our Honeymoon. We had a blast!! We rented jet skis, kayaks and went on a glass boat tour, plus we hiked to Hiji Falls. Jason had fun trying to “throw” me off the jet skis, however when he first did it he did not anticipate his wife’s death grip on his life vest and he came flying off with me and lost his sunglasses. The second time he knew it was coming, and gracefully came with. Our kayak trip was definitely an adventure. After about two hours of being out on the ocean, the boat itself started taking on water and was sinking. I got so mad because I’m not a good swimmer, and even thou we had life vests on it bothered the crap out of me being out in the ocean where I wouldn’t be able to put my feet on the ground. The lifeguard came out and helped us back on the kayak when it tipped over the first time, but the second time that happened within the next 5 minutes I had him bring me in and he went back to get Jason and then a third trip to get the boat. It took three guys to bring that little two person kayak back to shore where it only took one person to get it down there. Needless to say we came away with some great memories, really nice tans, and some Amazing pictures!
Since we’ve been home I’ve been running around doing errands, and spending time with my friends. I had two photo shoots recently where I took pictures of Ryan’s wife and boys. Ryan is currently deployed and Stephanie wanted to get some pictures that she could send to him and I was more than excited to take those pictures! Then later that afternoon my friend Becky and her family came over to get “studio” pictures. She wanted “sears” like pictures and even thou her daughter decided she didn’t want to get her picture taken after a while we still came away with some good ones.
My friend Sara and I are taking the DSL Photography class that is offered through Crafty Things on Kadena. And during our first class we learned how to “freeze movement” , and I’ll be honest I immediately thought of taking pictures of Ryan’s oldest playing soccer and Sara’s little one running with the “super baby” cape I’m making. The “teacher” also told us how to take awesome firework pictures, and I have to admit I definitely got a couple good ones.
I have been trying to decide if I want to go ahead and take the Wilton Cake decorating class they have here too, but I figured until I’m done working on my ceramics that I started two months ago I ought to wait until I see what I’ll be able to handle after school and Girl scouts start. I have my sinus surgery at the end of this month so the month of August is more than likely going to be completely out for me. So I’m planning on taking it easy and working on planning what I’m going to want to do with my Girl Scout troop over the next year. Right now I have to finish editing Stephanie and Becky’s pictures, before I get to do anything else today :)