Hello, and happy lazy Sunday to all!!

AND happy birthday to Phyllis yesterday! I am definitely looking forward to going out to eat yummy food to celebrate tonight!

Life in my little world has been fun and exciting and exhausting all at once. Last weekend we had a houseful of people, and it was super fun. Megan's parents and Jon-Michael and Allison came in Friday evening, followed by the surprise arrival of Charles and Stan late Friday night. (And when I say "surprise," I mean that everyone in the house except me knew they were coming.) We had a fantastic weekend that was pretty much one giant triple-date where only the girls knew what was going on. Good times. Megan and I had planned out the entire weekend, and our plans were only slightly hindered when the nastiest dust storm I have ever seen decided to visit Abilene on Saturday. It was truly disgusting. However, the weekend was fabulously fun. It was so fun to get to actually see Charles in real life and know that we can be friends off the phone too! Our phone-only relationship resumed after they left Sunday night, and will continue until Friday when I get to see him for a few hours before we leave for Honduras. He tells me he has something great planned for us to do, but he will not tell me what it is. It's like he likes to surprise me or something. :)

And this brings me to the next bit of excitement in my life: HONDURAS! We leave in just 6 days! I am oh so excited. It hardly seems like this is so close to happening. We have been talking about this trip for months and months, and it has been so exciting to see it all come together. There were definitely times when I wondered if it would, but God made it happen, just like I knew He would. I am so excited about the group that is going and the service we will get to do down in Honduras. Please pray for us!!

Work continues to be a fairly stressed-filled environment for me right now. I think it is a combination of it being winter, when lots of kids get sick, our continued lack of having a real manager, and my taking on more responsibilites that I know are good for me, but scare me to death as well. I am supposed to be beginning to orient to charge, but so far we have been too busy for this to really take place. I am not entirely excited about having to do this, but I have decided that since it seems this responsibility is going to be thrust upon me whether I like it or not, I am at least going to get a proper orientation to it. I absoluetly do not want to be thrown into it blindly again. That was pretty much horrible. Also, I am quickly discovering why Tommy was so eager to let me take over the responsibility of making the schedule. It is the opposite of fun! People get super touchy about their schedules, which I can understand, but it's sometimes like they don't realize that we have to have people working every day!! I do my best to work with people and give them the days they want, but I am not a miracle worker, and there is basically not a way to please everyone. This is a very hard concept for my people-pleasing self to accept. But I am learning. I am slowly developing a backbone. I am learning to listen to people's concerns, and truly be sympathetic, while at the same time standing my ground. It is difficult for me. As much as I would love to bend over backwards to let everyone work exactly when they want and be off exactly when they want, it is not worth my mental stability to spend every moment of my spare time trying to make the impossible possible. And so I have to keep reminding myself that even though people may get upset from time to time, they are upset with the situation, not with me personally. And even if they are upset with me personally, I am doing the best I can, and we will both just have to get over it. The end.