Saying goodbye's

I know I've touched on it before, but I feel compelled to give God a huge shout out for what he's been doing in our lives. Tomorrow is my last day with these kids that I've gotten to know over the last four years. I will miss them, and especially my team. Four years ago, I was graduating and Josh was trying to figure out where his next step was going to lead him. He decided U-of-H sounded good, and he applied, got in, and we made the random move to Houston. At the time we thought it was what Josh needed, but looking back I think the move was for me. Of course, there were a lot of experiences that Josh had here that were very significant in his life also, but I can really see how this move changed my life drastically. I started working at the most amazing school. The outgoing music teacher was still in the building, and even became a friend of mine. She mentored me and taught me so much about teaching music and classroom management. I honestly don't know what I would have done had she not been there, but I can speculate... it wouldn't have been pretty. Considering that my degree was very concentrated in secondary music, I didn't have as much knowledge on teaching these little ones as I should have. Because of her help, I was confident in my teaching, and that confidence led to success. The cherry on top was that she and her husband became our friends, and we even became parents within days of each other! Blessing number one. The second blessing came in the form of my co-workers. The large group team that I work with makes my lunch breaks, planning breaks, and overall work experience fun. I laugh so much at work... and that's a good thing :) They are supportive, at every program, and truly my friends. Blessing number two. The kids at my school have accepted me from the beginning, with open arms (literally!) Blessing number three. Now that I've had this amazing experience, it was time for God to get Josh back on track for His plan, which is why we are moving to Bryan. I feel like a certain you-know-who (I don't even want to put that name in my blog!!!) is attacking me because God is working so much in our lives. I know he only attacks me because God is being glorified through our experience. This just gives me even more confidence that God is doing big things in our lives, and makes me even more excited about this journey! Josh got into nursing school, I got a fantastic job...... Bryan, here we come!! Thank you God for moving in our lives.

Faith

Well, the cat is sort of out of the bag. We are leaving Cypress. We started thinking about this in the Fall (it's been on my heart for a while), we prayed and prayed separately, then came together with what we thought God was saying. It was the same for both of us. Josh wanted to pursue nursing. I didn't have a job prospect, Josh hadn't taken the test for nursing, we had no idea if this plan we thought was right would work out. Our first thought was that we wouldn't tell anyone, I wouldn't resign, etc. until we knew that I had a job and Josh got in nursing school. Then we realized that wasn't faith. Faith was not tip toeing toward a path hesitantly, but running toward it with confidence. I was convicted to run. So we started letting people know, Josh took his test, I applied in different districts, and we were confident that God would sort things out and open doors for us. Finally at the beginning of May, I even resigned from my current job. Yikes. That was painful. I love my current school very much, which is the hardest part of this move. Thankfully my friends are my friends, regardless of where I teach. So has God opened doors/windows/busted through walls? Oh, has He. First, there were several schools in the area that I knew were probably going to need music teachers, one of which I was hoping worked out. Guess which job I got? :) That's right, God didn't just provide, He provided the best, and the job that I was hoping for. Then Josh took his entrance test for nursing school. He scored in the 99% (which was a 95, when the average national score is 67)!!! Then, he got his grades for this semester, and he made a 4.0! Well, yesterday he got his letter and HE GOT IN! I'm so proud of him and the effort he's put forth. He is going to make a wonderful nurse. We have seen God bless us so much through this whole process. We had faith that this was where He wanted us, and He didn't just provide, He put our minds at ease.
Now friends, let me say this. Our lives aren't perfect. We have our struggles just like the next person. I just choose not to share negative things, especially on the internet :) My philosophy is that if something bad is happening in your life, don't speak it... don't share it with everybody in the world, hoping for sympathy. Do what you can to change it.
This has been huge for our faith. We've seen God provide. We are excited for the move, and for Josh to begin this journey! Please pray for him. These next couple years are going to be intense at school. Thanks for reading! :)

Psalm 37:4-5

Delight yourself in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of your heart. Commit your ways to the Lord; trust also in him; and he will bring it to pass.

Long time no see

How have I gone this long without writing a post??? Oh yeah, life happened. And life is crazy. There really hasn't been much update for the Gibsons. Sometimes we are just boring. We are in the process of making a huge change in our lives, careers, location... so please keep us in your prayers! We have felt a calling for a while, and it's been hard to follow that path when that path doesn't seem to have a nice paying job and place to live at the end of it. BUT we have decided that if it's God's will, which we believe it is, then we have to run toward that path. God will open doors, or windows, or something for us to get through. He always does.

Blakely is cute as ever. She is definitely showing her true colors the older she gets. She is her mother. :) Sometimes I think, "Oh you poor thing." Then other times I think that she will be just fine. She is very sweet. She even says, "Sweet sweet sweet!" when she knows she's doing something cute. She also has a short fuse and a hot temper. It will definitely be fun raising this one! The good thing is she is strong, and as she gets older that strong willed personality will hopefully get her far in life. I feel a lot of pressure for us to refine, not redefine, this beautiful personality that she has. She is talking up a storm, running everywhere. She wants her way, and is very independent. Don't even THINK about feeding her anymore... she is a big girl and can feed herself, regardless of the food! She loves to dance, sing songs, and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She is obsessed with doggies but won't touch one! She often says "night night, doggie" right before bed, even though we don't have a dog! We think she's talking to the neighbors dogs that she can hear sometimes.

As for Josh and I, my school year is coming to an end. It's hard to believe it's already April. I have a few programs coming up in the next couple months. I am going to miss these kids a lot. Especially the 5th grade choir. This group is the best I've had in a while, and they are very sweet. Josh is doing really well is school. He studies every spare minute, and it's paying off. I'm very proud of him.

Thank you those of you faithful readers who I haven't written anything for! I will be better, I promise!

We love you all!
The Gibsons

God is so faithful and generous!

I think as Christians we should always be honest, even about our shortcomings. Sometimes it's nicer for us to hide the things we do wrong, and flaunt our good things. I think all that does it make other people, and other Christians feel inadequate when they fail at something. So I'm going to be honest here... once Blakely was born, we didn't have a whole lot of extra spending money. I didn't have disability insurance, and I spent many hours stressing and even crying (I was pregnant! Give me a break!) over not having enough. I added it all up, I added it up again, and on the paper, we didn't have enough! Josh is so faithful. I've said it before, but it's true. He has great faith in God our provider. After she was born we actually had money in savings! God is so good. However... daycare is expensive as well as diapers, food, formula, etc. Here's the honesty part that I don't really want to share.... we kind of stopped tithing there for a little bit. It just seemed like every pay check went so quickly, there wasn't much left over. Well, about a month ago, Josh said that he was feeling convicted about it, and we needed to tithe again, whether we thought we had the money or not. He is such a good leader for our family. I'm so greedy, and I'm glad he isn't. I agreed, wishing we had more, but decided to be grateful we had enough. We planned out a budget that included tithing. And are you ready for that moment when God says, "Hey... I will always take care of you" ???

I kid you not, within the same week, I realized that my paychecks from then on were going to be several hundred dollars more every two weeks. Like, almost enough to cover daycare! You see, when I went on maternity leave, since I didn't have disability, they had to prorate my checks for the number of days I was actually there. Which was less of course than a normal year. Well, the fiscal year starts over now, so no more prorated checks, which means more moola! It was too perfect. I knew God was saying to me, "Be faithful to me and I'll be faithful to you". I so appreciate those moments when he reveals himself in my life like this. He always has and always will take care of us (and YOU!)

On another note, Blakely's party is this weekend! She is almost one! Our friends and family are so spread out that it will be a small party, very small. I will be sure to post pictures though. I'm so blessed to be her mommy. Josh and I went on a date last night, and as we were headed back home, I told him that while I did love our life before of going out whenever we wanted, regardless of the time of day, I wouldn't trade our family time for the world. She really is the apple of our eyes! Love love love her! More to come on our almost one year old very soon!

A new school year...

Monday starts my fourth year teaching! It is hard to believe I've been doing this four years! I've had to go back and recount to make sure I'm right. My classroom is all set up... here are some pictures!

 Instruments! 

 Xylophones and Metallophones! 

 I LOOOVE my smartboard!

 The ticket table. A bucket for each grade, and a different color ticket for each letter group.

 Ticket draws happen Friday!

 It's all about classroom management... especially with 40-50 kids at a time!

 The board, and my throne ;)

 Velcro lines to sit on. If your school doesn't allow tap this is a nice alternative. Leaves no mark (except for the clean line under the velcro at the end of the year... yuck!)

 My shelves. That pillow and blanket is for when I'm sleepy and take a nap during class. JUST KIDDING! I could get in trouble for saying that.... it's actually my book nook.

 I'm already off to a good start at a messy desk : \

What's that? Oh, it's seating charts for 1000+ students! My hand hurts!

So this is where the magic happens. Last week our principal asked us to write a word that would be our inspiration for this year. At first I thought my word would be calling. The reason was because on the way to school, wishing I was still home with my little darlin', I remembered that I'm doing what God has called me to do with my life. Why would I wish to be anywhere else but in God's will. Then God reminded me that LOVE has been on my heart a lot lately. After reading 1 Corinthians I realized that love is the most important thing I can do for others. Including these kiddos. That's my goal this year... to love them like I should. To all the teachers out there, good luck on a new school year. Make the best of it.

Update

I am just as bad as 90% of the bloggers out there with updating regularly. Here are some pictures for those of you not on Facebook...

I have so enjoyed being home with her. I wish I could do it all the time. She is crawling (a really weird one foot, one knee crawl) and pulling up on everything. She is a mess! But a very very cute mess. I love her more and more every single day. I was thinking this last week about God's relationship with us. People always use the analogy of, "Well think about your own child... could you send them to die a horrible death for someone else" and the answer is of course not. But I was thinking about a question I have had for a while now, about why God still has hope in us after so many years of denial. I always wondered why he didn't just wipe the earth and start new with a new race of people. I don't mean like with the flood... I mean completely start new. New Eden, new Adam and Eve, new everything, and maybe the next group wouldn't mess up so badly. Not until Blakely had I realized why he didn't do that. We are his children. He seems so far away, that it's hard to grasp that concept to me. If you had a child that screwed up, big time, you wouldn't kill them off. Most parents would stick by their children no matter what the circumstance. Now, I have to think that God is the most amazing father there could ever be, so of course he would do anything to save his children. Now that I have Blakely, I understand why he didn't "start over". You love them so unconditionally, with so much grace (Blakely could do little wrong in our eyes), and nothing they ever did would make that love go away. Nothing we ever do will make God give up on us.

Anywho... nap time is over, so I better get going! Love you all!!

Pinterest love!

For those of you that know about pinterest, you understand. I've grown to love the randomness that I find on that website. Until you try it you have no idea what the big hype is about... then an hour into browsing pinterest.com you have created 10 boards and have 200 pins! I wanted to share some of my favorites that I've found on pinterest, in case any of you don't enjoy pinterest, or perhaps haven't come across these pins. I mainly look for recipes, and here are some of my favorites:

Apple Nachos (they are amazing! Good luck eating only a few. I used caramel instead of peanut butter. Also, load it down with oats and chocolates! So yummy!)
Crispy Cheddar Chicken
Baked Chicken Parmesan - This is one of the yummiest recipes I've made! So good!
Brisket Tacos - easiest and most delicious crock pot recipe! I just add BBQ sauce after the meat is cooked
Taco Pizza
Cheesy Chicken and Rice - So yummy!
Slow Cooker Potato Soup - Delicious soup, but go easy on the garlic!

I'm also trying some fruit tacos this week, using sugar cookies, vanilla bean cream cheese and fresh fruit. I can't wait to try these! I've made something similar as a "Fruit pizza" before, but I think the "fruit tacos" will be even better!

 

Happy Cooking!