Compromises

Two weeks ago I decided to run the farthest I have ever ran. I got my shoes on, got in the car, and drove to Peter's Canyon. Not only was it the farthest but there are several large hills that I knew I would have to climb. I was ready for the challenge...until I started running. I hadn't even gotten half a mile (out of 6) before I started making compromises with myself. I'll only run the first part, I'll can walk when I get to the top of the hill, on and on and on and on and ON. As I realized that I was arguing with myself constantly, I started thinking about I (we) do this on a day to day basis, especially with God. This was the most challenging thing I had done in a while and all I could come up with were compromises.

I make compromises with God all the time. I wish I could have started this blog out with...Today I decided to run the farthest I have ever ran. But I didn't because I compromised with myself to write it after I took a shower, did my laundry, read blogs, read my fun book, cooked dinner....until it is literally two weeks later. SO embarrassing but true.

I've had a really hard week because I can see how compromises can get in the way of my time with God and they so have gotten in the way. My brother was here visiting from school (with his puppy) and I was dog sitting for my neighbor. I was home on average 30 min a day with work and all the events I had planned with friends and family. I made compromises to spend time doing that instead of staying in the Word and I can see the effects. I was stressed out, irritable with my brother, overeating, and not happy at all. I bummed me out because I have not been like this in a long time but it also shows me how important spending time with God every day makes the day that much better.

These are small examples of compromise in my life without trying to make my blog super long. Look at the compromises in your life...what are you compromising?

Oh, well good luck with that

I feel like every day someone asks me what I do for a job. I say substitute and they ask what subject. I tell them math and they always say I won't have any trouble finding a job next year. I offer a thank you and explain that I have chosen to move to Haiti to be a missionary instead of finding a job. Then the same thing always happens....they say, "Oh......well good luck with that." I even had a coach at a local high school call me because he heard I got a job at his school. He was very sad to hear my explanation and then the same thing. "Oh, well good luck with that. Bye." click.

I always wonder what they are thinking when I tell them that I am moving to Haiti. Some are excited but most can't grasp why I would give up everything and move there, even for a year. Just yesterday I was thinking...is this the right thing? And then God gave me a HUGE push that I am doing the right thing. It's not like he isn't ever giving me small nudges that I am doing the right thing but yesterday he wanted to push me down on my knees. In the blog before last, I talked about how God was putting on my heart to love Him and love others. Coincidentally, the Reeves family (the family I will be helping in Haiti) have the same agenda. Here is an part of their last post:

"The scriptures come alive as we see why Jesus said forget everything else and Love your God and Love others.  True religion.  Love God...Love others.  In America and on the mission field we make it so complicated.  We have to remember that we feed, educate, train, house, and heal BECAUSE we love.  We don't do it to get the right to share the gospel of Jesus.  We don't do it because we feel sorry for them.  We don't do it because we are trying to earn God's favor.  We do it because GOD has placed a love in our hearts for our people.  BECAUSE we love them, of course we share the truth of the Bible and the Living God.  We could never say we truly love them if we did not care about their greatest need... to know God and Love HIM.

...We all need and want the same thing... to know the answer to "why am I here and how do I make my life count".  All the answers are made available to us in God's word but we spend our lives WORKING and STRIVING and often miss the opportunities to just love people and find our place. "

I talked about the people around me and my friends in my blog. Thanks to God for wrapping up Haiti in it too :-)  There is such confirmation in our blogs matching up that my heart is in the right place right now, lined up with the people I will be living out the Gospel with in a little more than 3 months. Today I smiled and thanked them with a joyous heart when I heard, "Oh...good luck with that."

Lacking

So I feel like I talk about the same things every week but at the same time its what I am dealing with right now. Sorry I couldn't come up with some great thing to talk about this week. I always wish I could write a better blog than I do. So here is what I am struggling with right now. I'm looking for some advice because I lack self control. I've been doing well with my food problem/diet. I've been eating better, working out, and feeling great. A few weeks ago I realized that I needed to cut out sweets to remove some compulsion tendencies that I was dealing with. I am doing so much better now on a day to day basis but then I come to the end of the week and I have one day or meal where I blow the whole week. Sometimes I just can't say no  :-(  I know I am on my way to be totally healthy and remove all the tendencies I have but it is just frustrating. Does anyone have any encouragement or advice to help me out? I would love to hear what to have to say. And I would love it if you can pray for me. Love you guys!

Eagerly Wanting

I SOOO eagerly want to be like Jesus. If you haven't already started The Life You've Always Wanted, you need to now. I am only 3 chapters in and it is speaking so much truth into my life already. I wanted to share some of it with you 1. to get you interested if you haven't started it and 2. because I had already been pondering this theme in my life, how can I be like Jesus so that other people notice.

I want God to encompass my entire life and radiate from me. I want to be like Jesus in the fact that his "response was simply, "Love God, love people."" (Ortberg, p. 32) Jesus was one to attract people to him, not make people run away from like the other rabbi. He was so full of love that people couldn't get enough of him. I've been thinking about this with my friends and acquaintances. Do I love them unconditionally...no matter what? Right now, I can't say that I do. I always come up with an excuse not to hang out with some or give attitude when things don't go the way I planned. I have friends who only want to hang out if I drive to them (I don't want to! Why can't it be 50/50? Gas prices are killing me right now!) but that doesn't mean I just write them off. I don't think Jesus would have done that.

I want to pour into my friends the love of Christ, Christian or non-Christian, and have an effect on them. I want to make sure that they know I love them and will do anything for them. What a saying that most of us say but don't act on. It all takes more effort but I feel like my relationship with them and Christ will be stronger. We are richly blessed by God and each other here in Circles and I feel like it is our job to show how much God can change our lives by the simple things we do each week together. I am so grateful for everyone. Thank you for changing my life to be more like Jesus every day :-)

Easter Sunrise

I just wanted to use this blog as a shout out for our Easter Sunrise service that we had early this morning. It was amazing and God was sooo present. After we prayed, worshiped, and shared the gospel, we began to worship again. I closed my eyes and when I opened them again to look at the ocean there was a man with his dog standing right next to us. I thought HOW COOL IS THIS?!?!?! One of Ashley's friends talked to the man and invited him to the service. I can't wait to hear that story!

Not only that, there was a couple that saw us and climbed up to sit on the lifeguard tower overlooking us. The wife had her hand extended toward us during the whole time of worship. They were talking together and singing with us. Then it was Dannah's turn to get baptized. The couple on the lifeguard were amazed that we were going to baptize Dannah. By then we had a couple other people watching from the parking lot.

And then I thought, if God can show up and affect several people at 6:30 in the morning on the sand in Newport Beach, he can do so much more than that. in a small setting. in a huge setting. I think today was a time to help me remember that. Sometime it is hard to see the little things of the Kingdom and how we have a part in the plan.

Trust in the Lord

This weekend I was spiritually attacked. In conversation, someone asked me what I would do if when in Haiti, everything went wrong...I get sick and I'm not safe. And when I come back I don't get a job and I can't find a car, ect. At the time I was shocked and didn't know what to say and started talking nonsense. I had always considered that I will get sick and things aren't going to all be fine and dandy when I am in Haiti and when I come back home so when I was forced to really think about it, it bothered me and Satan took hold of it.

I kept thinking that it's not that hard...I trust that God will take care of me. He has prepared the way for me on this trip and if it is in His will, he will take care of me. It's to the point that I don't even want to think about what may happen because it doesn't really matter. Matt 6:34, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." I need to live in the present and not worry about the future. I trust God to take care of me.

For a few seconds, I doubted that I trusted too much because I hasn't really given any of those thoughts a lot of time. That was quickly snuffed out by my confidence in trusting the Lord. I believe that if it is God's will for me to go to Haiti, he will protect me, take care of me, and provide for me when I am there and when I return. This was solidified this week when I read Luke 11: 9-10, "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

I pray that God will show me what I seek in this adventure, keep me safe, free from sickness, provide for me when I am in need, and open doors when I return home.

I know that Mark 12:30 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." I want to change that a little bit...all week something else keeps popping up in my head. In my mind I keep saying, Trust in the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

Worldly Things

On Sunday at church, I asked for prayer. This very nice young woman came over to me and prayed over me. I've been deciding whether to live in Haiti during the school year and initially a lot of worldly things seemed to be holding me back. After she was done praying for me, she told me that she felt that worldly things were holding me back...exactly what I had been thinking since I found out 3 days earlier.

I feel like worldly things are getting in the way of everything and everyone and what I would be doing by giving it all up. Yes, I could be making a lot of money and be able to finally buy a nice new car but will that solve the struggles that I still have now? Will my life be ultimately changed in the eyes of God if I stay here? Maybe. But I think that he has greater plans for me. I want to know what it is like to give everything up and follow Jesus in what He is asking me to do.

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."
Matthew 16:24

So I wrote on facebook that I had some exciting news and I definitely do.

On Thursday, I got a facebook message from Bree Bauman (some of you may know her from college ministries before she left). She works for a non-profit who will be providing two teachers to an American family who lives in Haiti to home-school their 4 school age children. Yes, Haiti for the next school year...9 months. I would get paid through the non-profit and get to come home every 3 months to renew my work visa.

I love Haiti. I went last May with my school and knew I wanted to come back again. And if you ask my family or very close friends, I have always said I wanted to teach in another county for a year. I just didn't know how I was going to do it or when. In my current search for a job, I put it on the back burner thinking well if I don't get a job next year then I will consider it. I don't need to worry about it right now because I'm going to get a job.

And then God throws it at me. I end up not even having to search for it.

So now I am considering leaving everything behind and moving to Haiti for the school year to teach, feed, and love the people of Haiti. I don't know what God's plan is for me and I want so desperately to be obedient to Him.

A lot of worldly problems and  fears arise every time I think about it. My parents won't even talk with me about it right now.

Psalm 25 from the RH blog really stuck out to me this week. 1 In you, Lord my God,
I put my trust.

This came from the Reeve's family blog that I have been reading ever since I found out about them. This is the family I would be home-schooling. This was just in a random blog sometime at the beginning of moving to Haiti that I stumbled across and really spoke to me. It actually made me cry.

You don't have to worry. Full surrender to God means he will make it possible to do exactly what it is you want to do! As you surrender, God changes your heart to where what He made you for is exactly what you want! It does not mean He is going to drag you into the jungle where you dread going. He is going to allow you to experience the life you were made for. The life He created you for from the beginning of time. Don't let it slip away. Don't let fear and misconceptions of God rob you of what you could experience and also steal away the opportunity for you to bring God ultimate glory with your life. The fully surrendered life is best you can have now, and for all of eternity.

But with everything to think about, what does God want me to do? What is His will? How can I further His kingdom right now, here or Haiti?

Slices, I need your prayer. This is a HUGE decision for me and I want to earnestly seek God for his direction, clarity, and wisdom.

Connections

Last Monday at our Circles bible study, we read James 1:19-26. We had a great discussion and it got me really thinking about it.

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does."
James 1:22-25

I am going through the Gospels right now. I was reading Matthew 15 that night when something really connected with the message in James we discussed that night.

"'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Matthew 15:8

We can't just listen to the word. We have to DO what it says. That means we can't just honor God with our lips. We have to DO what it says. Our hearts can be so far from God that once we look in the mirror and walk away, we forget who we are in Christ. We become someone that other people want us to be. We need to listen to the word and DO what it says because if we do, we will be blessed in what we do.

Judgement

When reading the book, I wrote some notes about what I thought when reading this little part of the book.

'"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgments you give are the judgments you will get" (Matthew 7:1). From this and all the other texts of the Gospel, it becomes clear that God's judgment is not the result of some divine calculation of which we have no part, but the direct reflection of our lack of trust in God's love."
--Henri Nouwen

What if we didn't judge? Could I do that? It would be so freeing. I am who God made me to be so I should not worry about judging other people and other people judging me. I am perfect in His eyes. Trust in Him that He will provide for me in every aspect. I've been thinking about this a lot because it is hard to let go. It's hard not to judge other people. I think that if I could cease to judge others, it would be so freeing to me because it would be more time to spend with God and less time worrying about what other people think. How did this affect you?

I've become a regular Saturday blogger. I never seem to have the time for it during the busy week!

The ROCKHARBOR blog really got me this week so I wanted to answer the questions posted on it.

What is something that is taking your attention today? What are you seeking? What are you chasing after? Food, I am having breakthroughs but it is still what I am most concerned with.
What does it mean to have your whole being long for God? To be fully satisfied in God? To think of God in everything that I do. I want to be tempted by food, then call on God for help, and then overcome my food craving and succeed. I want to not rely on food and fully rely on God. I want to find that God is all I need.
Write a description of God based on the words you find in this Psalm. God is ALL. He is all powerful, all powerful, all loving, all satisfying, all everything. I can be satisfied in God and nothing else.
Where are you? Do you find yourself with David? Or are you someplace else? I am in between. I now am aware of my food tempting and bring God into it but I have not been able to overcome the craving. I am reading a book that is really helping my thought process on God, cravings, and food. I am excited of my learning process and how far I have come and where I go :-)

Do You Ever Have a Bad Day?

Yesterday (Friday) I was excited because the weekend was only a few hours away. I had a sub job for a high school English class. The day started out great, I'd found the right classroom and I had first period off. I sat and watched the podcast from this week and really enjoyed it. Unexpectedly and surprisingly,  the teacher came into the classroom. She was very flustered and upset that she had to have a sub. She asked me if I was an English major, in which I replied no and explained that I taught math. She was outraged that I was subbing for her and made sure to tell me I was incompetent to be here. She ranted for several minutes, told me to not pronounce words if I didn't know them, ordered me around and then left. I was so mad at her but then I realized I needed to show her love.

I thanked her profusely for coming in to give me directions and let her know what to expect. I wished her to feel better and thanked her again, all while still livid that she could say I shouldn't be there.

Talking to students later, I found out that she had great rapport with the students and they said she was really nice. I hadn't seen that part of her. My perspective had changed. It must have just been a bad couple days for her.

How many of us encounter people having a bad day? What about that driver on the freeway who can't seem to drive? How do we react to them? Is it with love or do we show anger, impatience, a short temper right back to them?

"But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness."
Psalm 86:15

If we are to be like God in everything we do, why can't we love on those people who are having a bad day? Even if some may seem like they have a bad day every day.

Struggles

Sooo I've had all these really great ideas this week about what to write that will be scholarly and I feel what I should be writing to you fellow slices but my mind keeps coming back to my biggest struggle in life.

Food. I struggle with food. It is my obsession and my downfall. I've always struggled with it but in high school it wasn't that bad. Then I went to college and playing a college sport made it so I could eat anything I wanted whenever I wanted without a consequence. During the last year of college I realized that I needed help because my eating habits were out of control. I'm a compulsive, guilty, emotional, over-eater. I exhibit all bad habits of eating. I tried to help myself but nothing worked. I finished basketball last March and gained weight. At Christmas I finally had had enough. I couldn't control my eating habits and food was controlling my life. I wanted to eat all the time and it consumed every minute of my day. I'd been telling my mom (how is a therapist) that I needed to get help because I couldn't do it on my own.

God told me that I need to get my life healthy before he will bring someone into my life. I decided to sign up for Weight Watchers on Dec. 26 and see if I could relearn how to eat to be a healthier person. I knew this was a step I had to take in the right direction. The first few weeks were great, I didn't have any of the cravings I had before. As I got more comfortable with the program, I started to get my craving and habits back but I have kept it still within the program. I've lost 15 pounds in the last 7 weeks which is great but I don't want these old habits.

So here is what I am struggling with:
1. bad old habits
2. I feel great that I've lost a good deal of weight and then I realize that I've been skinnier and then start to feel bad about myself again
3. at this point, every day I feel like sabotaging myself so that I don't loose weight. I've been so successful so far I feel like at some point I NEED to fail (I know that's awful!)

It's been on my mind to share with you throughout the whole week because I want you to know my struggle. I need prayer and support. And I apologize if I don't eat what you offer me when I am with you. It's not that I don't want to eat it, I just have to watch what I eat. Now that I shared this with you, I will post later about an awesome thing that happened to me. Its hard for me to write about this so thanks for reading and the support I know you guys are going to give me.

If we are the body

 Right when I recommitted myself to the Lord, I hear this song and went OK, I get it. But not until Darin this last weekend posed the question that I have heard before but hadn't really hit me yet. Do we go to church or are we the church. This week that statement rocked me. It made me think, do I just do the church thing?As I was driving home from work this week thinking about what I wanted to blog about, I was listening to the Fish when Casting Crowns If We are the Body came on. I started listening and this song slapped me right in the face. He is challenging us to be the body and be church, not just go to go.

If We are the Body 
by Casting Crowns

It's crowded in a worship today
As she slips in
Trying to fade into the faces
The girls' teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know
Farther than they know

But if we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?

And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them
There is a way? There is a way?

A traveler is far away from home
He sheds his coat
And quietly sinks into the back row
The weight of their judgmental glances tell him that his chances
Are better out on the road

But if we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
[. From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/c/casting-crowns-lyrics/if-we-are-the-body-lyrics.html .]

And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them
There is a way?

But Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the body of Christ

But if we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?

And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them
There is a way?

If we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?

And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them
There is a way? As Jesus is the way

I think that for the past year I have just been doing the church thing. That's one of the reasons I joined Circles. I don't want to just do the church thing anymore. I want to be the church. I want to emanate God and the church in everything I do. I'm excited about my new challenge. Praise the Lord!

Everday Joy

I was reading the section about joy in our book, Here and Now. Part 2 where it talks about joy as a choice has stuck with me this week. God is in control of our lives but we have control of finding joy in our lives.

"It might sound strange to say that joy is the result of our choices. We often imagine that some people are luckier than others and that their joy or sorrow depends on the circumstances of their life--over which they have no control."

We have a choice in how we respond to our circumstances. It's my first week of substitute teaching and although I want to teach HS math, I signed up to sub anything and I thought that I would get maybe 1-2 calls this week. Every morning between 5-6:30 my phone has gone off.
Monday: kindergarten/1st grade
Tuesday: 4-6th grade Special Ed
Wednesday: continuation HS
Thursday: Kindergarten
Friday: ? (I'm hoping for some older kids) I'll know in the morning, that is if I get a call at all

God put the challenge on my heart this week to be joyful in every situation. I wanted to be the nicest sub these kids had ever had and shown them the true joy in God that I have in me. I never thought that I would be as tired or had as much fun with the crazy kids God placed in my care every day this week. I even had a kid from the continuation high school tell me I didn't belong there and hoped that I didn't come back. I was shocked.

I love getting that call every morning waiting for it to tell me my assignment because I know that is where God wanted me to be that day. I am finding great joy in waiting on the Lord to put me in the place I am supposed to be that day and making every day different. It's refreshing to not know what my day looks like, where I will be, and who I will be teaching until I get my wake-up call.

Rushed

I am a busy individual who always takes on just enough to handle without going on over load. Therefor I am always rushing through anything trying to fit one more thing in my day. I find myself doing this with Circles already because I have been worried about the time commitment. I rush through my books barely reading the words until something really catches me off guard. Once I realize it, I have to go back and read everything over again. I do the same thing with the blogs, I start reading and after a few I realize that I need to be reading and commenting on things that touch me personally. I read them all over again to process what you are saying. I feel like I'm on cruise control. This needs to change in me.

I read all of your amazing stories on how God is so apparent in your lives and I haven't had that in a long time. I'm lacking and really struggling. I am praying this week that I can slow down and seek God and see Him.

I look forward to meeting everyone next week. I haven't been to a meeting yet because I had prior engagements for work.

My choice of Circles

I guess I didn't really tell you how I ended up here with this blog and all of you reading it :-)  2 1/2 years ago I was struggling with my faith and by best friend asked me if I wanted to start going to church with her. She suggested RH and I had been a couple times before so we dove in. Three months later I was the Concordia Campus Life Group leader. I did this for the past 2 years while attending Concordia and hung up the towel in May when I graduated. I loved every minute of it because I was with 5 other girls who knew me and were at the same place in life. Since graduating, I felt like I was missing something. I had joined a life group but it just wasn't doing it for me. I knew I needed something else. I heard about Circles and blindly without knowing anything, applied, interviewed, and got accepted. Once accepted I found out the details and honestly this will be a challenge for me that I am very excited about. I have put God in the back seat and I know that it needs to change. I am so excited to delve into Circles with everyone and hear your stories, responses, and how God is working in all of our lives.

I know I mentioned before that after this Friday, I am done with student teaching. I am a person with a schedule that LOVES to book myself solid. This will be the first time that I have no schedule and will live day to day waiting for that call to substitute teach. I thought that I would be scared and worried with nothing to do but I feel that God is slowing me down to be a part of Circles. So what if I have no steady job and no income, live with my parents, and my car is broken with no repair date set. I have no anxiety and am at total peace because God is going to take care of me and he will provide for me when I need it.

Hi Everyone!

My name is Lindsey Kingsland. I'm a little apprehensive with all of this stuff because I have never done anything like this. I am very excited for the journey I am about to embark on with all of you!

I was born and raised in Orange. I am 22 years old and have a brother who is 2 years younger than me. My parents are happily married. My dad works for NJB and referees high school basketball. My mom is a marriage and family therapist and works for a non-profit company called Outreach Concern. My brother is a junior at UC Davis majoring in English and minoring in Psychology and Secondary Education. My parents are both Christians and my brother is an atheist. I grew up and went to school at St. John's Lutheran Church and school near my house in Orange. My parents are both tall, my dad is 6'3" and my mom is 6'2, which makes my brother tall (6'5") and me tall too. I'm 6'0 and the "short" one in the family. Naturally, I am a sports girl. Growing up, I played soccer, softball, basketball, and volleyball.

When I was 12, my dad was diagnosed with stage 3 Melanoma. The doctors told my family that he would not live more than a year. He went through several surgeries and 4 rounds of intensive chemo sessions where he stayed in the hospital for 1 week and then at home for 3 weeks. He is a cancer survivor and as good as ever. He just celebrated his 10 years cancer free, 50th birthday, and my parents 25th wedding anniversary. I think that my dad really started to believe in God because God saved him. During that time, I learned to take care of myself and my brother and have been independent from then on.

At 13, I decided that I was going to play basketball in college so that I didn't have to pay, since that was the only way I was going to go. Since then basketball has been the love of my life.

During middle school I was really involved with church but I started to drift away from God in high school.  I went to El Modena High School and played 3 sports. I played volleyball, basketball, and I threw the shot put and discus. I was Female Athlete of the Year in 2006 and signed with Fordham University on a full ride to play basketball.

Fordham was my time to think I was having fun. I was away from home and got wild. If my coach was not demeaning and made me hate everyday I was there, I probably would still be there. Leaving was the best decision of my life. When I came back, I signed with Concordia University to play basketball. That was the next best decision of my life. I loved being surrounded by other Christians who could support me. At that time, I had a boyfriend who really pushed me to think about who I was as a Christian and what I believed in and stood up for. Although it wasn't a healthy relationship, he strengthen my faith more than anyone else had since I was little. The biggest gift he gave me was the book Captivating, because it changed my life. For over a year, God provided me with 20-30 books to hand out to other women.

I graduated from Concordia this past spring as a Mathematics major (don't worry I'm normal) with emphasis in Secondary Education.  want to make a difference in public high school students. Currently I am student teaching at Canyon High School until this Friday. This is really scary for me because I have no idea what is in store for me after this Friday. I am also coaching the Fresh/Soph Girls basketball at Canyon. I am so excited at how much my girls have improved in the last few months. I only have less than 3 weeks with them too.

I know I haven't told you everything but I hope this is a great start. Please ask questions if you have any. I am really excited to meet everyone and start this journey together as friends.