Tuesday, December 21, 2010

top 5

Top 5 Reasons I work for my Alma Mater

1. They hired me!
2. The awesome people. DMVC people are pretty great too! Miss you all:)
3. WKU is in Bowling Green, so I don't have to drive 45 minutes to get to work.
4. There are a lot of opportunities to learn new skills. I hope to learn more about web and continue to improve upon my marketing skills.
5. CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

a very nichols christmas album in stores now!

If you would like to hear the 10 minute Christmas album that Chris produced last weekend with the Nichols girls, go to: A Very Nichols Christmas  It's free to download. You might even hear my voice on it here and there. You can't hear me much at all, but I promise that I recorded with them for every song. You're more likely to hear me washing dishes in the background! Enjoy!

Monday, December 13, 2010

a very nichols christmas

My sister's family has had a tough time the last couple of weeks. My brother-in-law has been battling an infection in his knee since they operated on his ACL in March.  The infection has been resistant to antibiotics.  Last week he had a bad reaction to the bacteria and ended up in the hospital for several days.  They scheduled surgery to remove more of the infection and to start him on some more aggressive antibiotics.   That meant four more days in the hospital.  My sister called me on Thursday night stressed out.  She had finals to study for, a sick husband in the hospital and two little girls to care for.  I thought it would be a good time to offer some help. Chris and I took our nieces for the weekend. We had to miss Family Christmas with our friends in Louisville, which was a bummer, but we knew we needed to help out. 

We played games, recorded a Christmas album as a surprise gift for their parents, colored pictures (and "Get Well" cards for Daddy), watched the movies they brought with them (including the Polar Express about three times), went to church, and ate, and ate, and ate! It was so much fun! I got to say things like, "You need to pick up your mess," "Do you need help with that?" "Let's go brush our teeth," "Do you need to use the potty?" "Stop picking your nose," "Did you wash your hands?"  "Did you flush the toilet?"  "Chew with your mouth closed,"  and "Elbows off the table." It was great. We don't get to hang out often enough!

I had met my sister Friday night in Russellville, Ky, which is roughly halfway between Bowling Green and Clarksville, TN, to pick them up. The plan was to do the same to get them home again on Sunday night. With the weather being a bit snowy and icy, we decide to make the trade a little earlier while the weather was still decent, late afternoon, before dark.  Well, we should have made it early afternoon because by the time we were halfway to Russellville, 68-80 was completely covered with snow.  Luckily, the ice hadn't yet formed underneath.  However, by the time we got to the meeting place, it had.  We were having to creep along.  My sister, Melay didn't have a very easy drive either, she had more of a farm road to travel. Luckily, after sliding around at each stoplight and driving very, very slowly on the way back, we made it home safely.  I got a call from my sister saying they had made it home okay too.  Praise God!









Emberly explains how she was grounded once for throwing chalk on the roof.

Charis informs me that she is drawing a celebration.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

vacation

Chris and I are planning a vacation to Asheville, North Carolina at the end of December, and I am getting pretty excited about it!

I am mostly excited because this trip isn't going to cost me any vacation days at work! Two week Christmas breaks are the best!

This will be our first bed and breakfast stay. They are supposed to have a great breakfast each morning and pastries and fresh-baked cookies every afternoon!  We're partaking in the Biltmore Estate Package, which should be fun.  We'll probably try to find something interesting to do the other four days that we're there. I know it's silly, but I am kind of excited about the claw foot tub. I just think they're really neat. We're praying for good weather through the end of December so that we're able to keep our reservation!




Saturday, December 4, 2010

randomness

Chris just left a little while ago for a doctor's Christmas party that he and Lopez have been practicing so hard for lately.  They are getting paid pretty well to play, but Chris didn't have a suit, so he's already spent what he would have made playing at the party on a suit to wear to play at the party.  Oh well. He needed a suit anyway.  I'd say it's worth 3.5 hours of playing music.

Lookin' snazzy!


He was looking so nice, I had to grab a photo of us together.




A few minutes ago I realized the day was nearly over and that I hadn't eaten lunch or dinner.  Thankfully I am going to a Christmas party in an hour. There will be lots of food there, so I won't really need dinner. But it was four o'clock, and I needed to eat something to get me through to six o'clock...preparing something quickly for one person is always tough.  I peered into the fridge at the sliced cheese and ham lunch meat that I had been eating on all week for lunch, and thought, "If  I have to eat that again today, I might cry."  So what did I do? What any normal person would do that had bagels, cream cheese, half a jar of pizza dip, and a little bit of mozzarella cheese on hand. Can you tell I made pizza dip earlier this week?  I had all the right ingredients, but I didn't want to make an entire batch of dip.  My solution? Reinvent the pizza bagel.  Toasted bagel and cream cheese, a thin layer of pizza sauce, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, smothered in mozzarella and topped with parsley and basil.  Yum!  I nuked it because I was starving, but it was a little soggy. It would have had a better texture if I had oven heated it.  Healthy? Nope. Tasty? Yes! 

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

blessings

God's little reminder that he is taking care of us and has taken care of us through a tough year is that Chris secured a long-term science substitute teaching assignment.  Correction, he actually got two long-term sub assignments! He started at Greenwood High School yesterday, and he will finish out this semester there.  He's also covering a Biology teacher's maternity leave for ten weeks starting right after Christmas break at Warren East High School.  If all goes as scheduled (the teacher is having a scheduled C-section the last week of December), that should bring him through the first week or so of March.  Praise God! He will get a break from calling the sub-caller a couple times per week to get assignments. (Yes, you have to call the sub-caller for assignments if you want to work every day. It's a little backwards.)  They consider subbing for the same class for longer than 10 days a long-term assignment.  After 10 days, long-term subs that are certified teachers are paid on a per day basis at the same rate that a full-time teacher of that rank is paid.  That means Chris should get paid like a full-time teacher for four days on this first assignment and for eight weeks on his next assignment! A full-time Rank II certified teacher is paid over double that of a certified Rank II substitute, so the extra income, even just for a few weeks is a huge blessing.

The Lord has been faithful!  Since he's started subbing at the beginning of the semester, I think he's been able to work every day that school was in session except one. We're praying that all this subbing, especially subbing long-term will help him get to know some principals a little better and help him to get his foot in the door should a full-time high school Biology teaching position become available in Warren County. He's certainly putting in his time to earn it!