I've forgotten how to blog

Here we go again... I seem to have had a blog/writer's block for the last month. I log on to write something, but nothing seems to come out! It's been just under a month since I last blogged, and though a lot has happened, I can't seem to find the words to write about them. I'll try my best though!

I guess the biggest thing is that school started! Yes, I still only have 6 kids. Yes, I am experiencing God's grace! hehe It's insane to only have 6 children in my class. Sometimes I feel a bit silly... I have a degree from UNC, my assistant has a degree from NC Central, and here we are together in a class with 6 kids. And they're GREAT kids! We had one little guy who cried a lot the first couple days, but this afternoon when his Mom came to pick him up, he said, "no, I'm not ready to go yet." Cute kid. :) My classroom is super cute this year too. I spent a little extra cash this year getting my room set up, and we decorated with zoo animals all over the place. I'll try to get some good pictures up here soon. It's such an amazing feeling to know what I'm doing for once. I've always changed teaching jobs, so this is the 1st year I've come back to a school for a second year. It's nice to not be the new kid for once!

I also had the amazing opportunity to go to Youngstown, OH with some of the young professionals from the Summit. We only went for 4 days, but we got a lot of work done! Youngstown Metro Church (which the Summit helps support as a church plant) has been going strong for about 4 years. Josh and Aimee Shank left the Summit to go to Ohio the same week I left to go to South Africa. So I'd been keeping up with them since then. It was great to FINALLY get to see firsthand what I've been praying for and reading about for 4 years! As another cool fact, Josh was the first person to ever talk to me at the Summit 6 years ago. Small world. :)

And for one more tidbit in the life of Bonnie... this past weekend my house flooded like never before. My kitchen has flooded before, but this time I woke up at 5:30 am to a 1-2 inch flood on the first level of my house. To make matters worse, all the tv/stereo electrical wires were on the floor! We had to turn off the power to the outlets, unplug everything, get everything up off the floor and to dry ground, put the waterlogged couch on two crates to dry it out, and suck up all the water with my shop-vac. We sucked up about 120 gallons of water. Talk about a crazy day. I'll add pictures soon!

Well, that's all for now. I must be getting my beauty sleep! Thanks for checking in!

6 kids

I went to the Pre-K office today to pick up my class list and the folders for each child. I only have SIX kids in my class so far!! This may very well change, but six kids?? That's insane. I think I still have low numbers because they still want to make my class a combined regular/hearing impaired class, but they can't do that until they hire someone to teach with me who has the hearing impaired teaching experience. So far they haven't hired one, and I don't think they have any leads. WOOHOO! Is it possible that I can get lucky enough to have small classes two years in a row? This is crazy, but I am NOT complaining, that's for sure!! :) I'm so ready to get back to school and meet these kids! *sigh* I love my job. :)

life is expensive!

My word... it is expensive to live a decent life. In the course of 24 hrs I will have spent a grand total of $1000. Part of that is to take care of my precious kitties. I've been a terrible Mom and they've gone without veterinarian care for over 3 years now. I know... I spent $800 to fly them home, and then haven't given them the proper care... I KNOW! So they're going to the vet tomorrow. Today I took my car in to the shop because it has been vibrating. Well, they found more problems as they went, and the price kept going up and up! I know it's important to take care of you car... I mean, I don't want to be driving on I-85 when my brakes finally decide to give out on me, or my tire with barely any tread on it decides to bust. So I handed over the visa and held my breath. I'm still holding my breath! AHHH!!!! OK... freak out - over. God always provides. In few months I'll get an extra check from my school because our kids scored above certain mark on their end of grade tests. I'm so praying that really does come in, or else I'm in deep debt! All that to say, taking care of yourself and your life really does cost a pretty penny! Anybody need a babysitter!? hehe

i ♥ my job

What a concept! I realized a couple days ago that I am really ready to go back to school. This is also the first year that I am not required to work in early childhood. The past few years I've had to work to pay back a scholarship, but now I've done my duty! I could go do anything else I wanted to do, and yet, I'm going back to R.N. Harris to be a Pre-K teacher. I love it! I love the fact that I don't have to be a teacher anymore, but I actually want to be a teacher! I'm actually looking forward to a new class. Yes, I realize that the first few weeks will be tough... we'll have the criers, the whiners, and the "challenging children," but there will also be those that capture my heart. The kid who cried to most last year (for almost the first 2 months!) became my little shadow and I miss him and his hugs to this day. So yes, I AM ready for summer break to be over. (Well, after my little vacation with Mom next week!) I am actually ready to get back to work. Hooray! This was my little crier from last year!! I thought he'd NEVER come in with a smile on his face! But he eventually did. :)

it took me this long to figure that out??

Last night I was sitting with a lovely group of ladies at a church planting seminar at the Summit. No, I don't plan to run off and start a new church any time soon, but I am very interested in the church planting movement, and have been since I started reading up on the subject 4 years ago in South Africa. The seminars are for both those interested in overseas church planting and North American church planting (be it California or right here in good ole Durham). I was chatting with another girl at the table about where I felt called to. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I would go back overseas in a heartbeat. But I also feel very much called to Durham for this season of my life. So I was telling her that I'd go overseas at any given moment, BUT that I'd made the crazy (silly?) decision 2 years ago to buy this tiny old house in the ghetto, and that selling it (in order to go overseas) would be quite a feat. I said something to the extent of, "I would go overseas in a heartbeat, but for some reason, God put this house in my path so clearly that I couldn't resist." The more we talked, the more I came to the realization that perhaps one of the reasons God lead me to this house was to KEEP me here. It would be easy for me to leave this all behind and go to another land, but God is (for now) using this house to keep me firmly planted in Durham - a mission field all on its own!! The longer I'm here, the more I fall in love with Durham. She has her share of issues, but what place doesn't? Until the day (if, in fact it ever comes) when someone is crazy enough to buy this house, this is home.

a lesson in trusting Him

Sunday evening when I started to plan out this coming Saturday's kids club, I realized that everyone but me (and possibly Amanda) was going to be out of town. I had a bit of a freak out moment. What was I going to do? I took a deep breath, reminded myself that God was in control, and went to bed.

Then I got a message from a friend saying that she and maybe some girls from her small group wanted to come out to Oxford Manor on Saturdays. I sent out an email to 3 friends who had expressed interested in coming to OM before, and one wrote back a couple hours later and said she wanted to come. Monday evening I got an email from one of the regular missionaries saying her plans had changed and she would be at club and would teach the younger kids. I also got an email from Amanda saying she'd be in town. Tonight at small group one of the guys said he would come out on Saturday (and in the future his fiance will come out too, but she'll be out of town this weekend) and another guy said he was definitely interested in helping out with the OM ministry, he just wasn't sure how yet. On my drive home from small group I called my roommate to chat for a bit, and she said she got a text today from a friend asking for my email address because she wanted to email me to ask about Oxford Manor.

Are you kidding me!? God really makes me laugh sometimes. How can I ever doubt him?? So on Sunday night I thought I had (maybe) 2 people who could go to the kids club (myself included) and now there will be at least 6 people there (3 of whom are brand new!). Funny how things always seem to work out when I trust God to work it out instead of myself!!

There IS hope for Durham

This past week we had a week-long kids' club in Oxford Manor. Rick got a team in from a church in Monroe, NC and they did the whole thing! The team of us who go out every Saturday didn't have to plan or execute one thing all week - it was great! All we had to do was hang out with the kids, try to help with crowd control, and help guide the team as much as possible in how to best minister to these kids. It was awesome! It was such a breath of fresh air to be able to spend time with the kids without being the one to worry about who's teaching and who didn't show up and what are we going to do!?

This morning a small group from the Summit came to fix the picnic tables and pick up trash/glass on the playground. We decided that since the kids had club all week, and we didn't have many missionaries who could come today, we wouldn't have a typical club. What we ended up doing was even better!

When the team left yesterday, they left us with over 100 copies of the JESUS movie. Today the 9 kids that came to the playground hoping to have club got to be missionaries in their own home! We gave the kids handfuls of movies and said we were going to knock on all the doors and see who wanted a movie. They went crazy - it was awesome! The leaders stood back and watched as the kids that we minister to week after week became the missionaries. It definitely made my heart smile to see that there is, indeed, HOPE for Durham! :)

There is no "safe"

This morning I joined a group of summit people to go help clean up a low-income apartment complex in Durham (as part of the Summit's week of hope). Since we were cleaning up the parking lot, we were to park our cars a couple blocks away at a local market. One of the ladies asked, "is it safe to park our cars there?" I wanted to say, "you could park your car in the church parking lot, and there's no guarantee it'll be here when you get back." It hit me though, that not too many years ago I would've asked the same question. As I got into my car I thought about all that God has been teaching me about trusting in Him and Him alone. I thought to myself, "safe?" There is no "safe" as the world perceives it. Even in a nice neighborhood, stuff happens... it's the way of this crazy world. I had been listening to a somewhat cheesy, but very beneficial CD that puts some scripture verses to song in order to help you learn them. The song playing when I got in my car was Galatians 2:20 - I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Wow - perfect timing! I put the song on repeat in order to get it solidly in my head. God continues to teach me this lesson day after day - night after night! I still have moments at home when I jump at every sound. It's been over 7 months now since the break in, but for some reason, when I am here alone at night, I still have to be very intentional about trusting God! Leanne is gone this weekend, so last night as I laid down to go to sleep, I planned to keep repeating Galatians 2:20 until I fell asleep. Let's just say I think I said it twice... maybe. :) God is good!

When do Moms shower?

That's what I asked my Mom today as Lauryn and I joined her for the last few minutes of her lunch break. I have been watching my 3 year old niece since yesterday evening. I volunteered to watch her last night while my brother packed up their house. (Oh yeah, by the way, they closed on their house the SAME day Emily was born - big day!) Last night my Dad called to ask if I'd be ok watching Lauryn until tonight. Of course I said yes! Lauryn time is special to me! :) So yesterday I made dinner, gave her a bath and got her to bed. I relaxed for a bit, enjoyed some internet time, and hit the sack myself. We slept in the same room, so when she got up at 7, so did I. I made french toast for breakfast. As Mom and Dad were both leaving, it dawned on me that I had not taken a shower yet... hmm... Well, the day had to go on, shower or not! She played well for a little while, but eventually got bored. So we went for a walk. We walked to the elementary school at the end of our road to play on the playground, but once we were there, I realized that the playground was not very preschooler friendly. Luckily, through a small trail is the church I grew up in, and they have a great playground. So we walked a bit further and played there for a while. I think I'm going to be a tough Mom. A few times Lauryn got herself into places and then didn't know how to get down. Instead of giving in to her whines for help, I made her try her best to get down with me "helping" (I actually didn't have to help her at all). I figured, she got up there, she can get down. And I was right. hehe She was pretty excited when she learned she could do it herself, and preceded to climb back up and down for about 20 minutes. Fun times. :) Then we trekked back home and headed into town. We visited with my Mom for a while on her lunch break and then went across the street to McDonald's. After lunch, she played on the playground for a while (can you tell I was trying to tucker her out?). Then we came home and went straight to bed! I'm hoping she sleeps for a good long time. To all you Moms out there - I have GREAT admiration for you all!! I hope I'm cut out for this some day... :)

Emily Reagan!

Emily Reagan Boisvert born 6/30/08

What an great way to spend my birthday! I got to meet the newest member of the family, Emily. Lauryn is a very proud Big Sis. She cracked me up when she came into the room today and saw me. She was oh-so excited to see Aunt Bonnie (oh how I love it!) but that didn't last too long. Once she noticed baby sister she was done with Aunt Bonnie! They're both precious!!!

Friends and Family...

What more could I ask for? Today both friends and family came out to dinner after church to help me celebrate my 27th birthday. It was perfect!! My family (from Sanford) finally got to meet my "Durham family" as well as a few of my Summit friends. I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do for my birthday this year. We finally decided to go to Red Robin. Even then, I expected a small turnout. How exciting it is for me that there were 20 people that came! What an awesome display of God's goodness to me. I thank God for each and every one of you!!

everyday ministry

So far I am LOVING my summer break. I'm not yet (too) bored, which is a great thing. I've purchased some summer reading books, so I now have no excuse to claim boredom! I'm quite enjoying having time to myself, and time to spend with friends whenever I want to. :) Yesterday I went to a free movie with the Amanda, her kids, and another Mom and her 2 girls. Then, after the movie, we all went swimming in the 2nd family's community pool. While we were there, another Mom from the Summit came with her 2 girls. So before too long, I was hanging out with 3 Moms and 7 kids! I loved it. I'm so thankful that after a couple years of asking (dare I say begging!) God for a "family" in Durham, He has richly blessed me! Now I not only get to hang out and learn from the Subletts, but also from other families I meet when I am with them. Most single "20-somethings" tend to stick with hanging out with just other 20-somethings. I'm glad I am different. I had a thought yesterday that both shocked me and made me smile. While I was sitting at the pool, being the only single person there (besides the girl working), and watching Moms and kids, I thought, "I am in a great place in life - I'm content." I mean, I DO want to be a Mom someday, watching my kids play, but I was thinking yesterday about the opportunities that I have NOW because I'm not yet married with kids. Even if it's just the ability to be an influence in these kids' lives, that's awesome! In the group yesterday, there were 5 girls, all in elementary school (I think). What a great chance I have to get to know them now (while they're still naive enough to think I'm somewhat cool), and then when they're older and their Moms "totally don't get it," maybe I'll be able to come alongside them and be there to encourage, advise, and just love these girls. How blessed I am to have this chance! I pray that I don't take advantage of this period of my life. It's SO easy to be selfish with my time... I tend to be very fond of "me-time." But I don't want to waste a minute of potential ministry in the everyday situations of life.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Man... I never thought I'd be so happy about some chicken noodle soup. I guess when it's the first thing resembling food that I've been able to have in the past 36 hours, it changes the enjoyment factor a bit! For some reason, unknown to me, I woke up Monday morning with a stomach bug. I never get sick... I mean, I have never once gotten sick overseas (and I lived in South Africa for 2 years!) The last time I got sick was almost 3 years ago. I think because I so rarely get sick, I'm a big baby when I actually do. Thankfully I didn't have to work last night, but I did have to miss praise team practice. :( I still felt pretty cruddy when I went to bed last night, and didn't feel great when I woke up this morning. I took some more medicine, went back to sleep and when I finally woke back up today at almost noon, I felt pretty good! I decided to attempt some chicken noodle soup this afternoon, and it actually tasted good! Thank goodness... maybe I can start to get back to normal now. :)

lyrics

Have you ever listened to a song a thousand times and then all of a sudden, for the first time, you really hear the song? That happened to me today. I recently bought the Passion: God of this City CD and have been playing it nonstop ever since. One of the songs is called "God of our Yesterdays." It has a very singable chorus, so I listen to it a lot and love to sing along with the chorus. Today as I was listening though, I heard the verses... and they hit close to home. I know that reading a song is NOTHING like hearing it, but here are the words anyway...

When we were in the darkest night
And wondered if our eyes would ever see the light
You were there, Lord
When we were in the stormy gale
And wondered if we'd ever live in peace again
You were there, Lord
You were there in the struggle
You were there in the fight
You were there all the time

We praise You - the God of our yesterdays
We praise You - the God who is here today
We praise You - our God as tomorrow comes

So whatever lies ahead
Whatever roads our grateful hearts will come to tread
You'll be there, Lord
We will fix our eyes on You
And know that there is grace enough to see us through
You'll be there, Lord
You'll be there in the struggle
You'll be there in the fight
You'll be there all the time

We praise You - the God of our yesterdays
We praise You - the God who is here today
We praise You - our God as tomorrow comes
We thank you - for grace in our yesterdays
We thank you - for peace in our hearts today
We thank you - for joy, as tomorrow comes
We will trust you, God

You're always closer than we know
Always more involved and in control
We will trust our lives to You -
The One who was and is and is to come

You see, I've been learning that I am more of a control freak than I'd like to admit. I like to think that I'm cool with whatever comes. I absolutely love being able to say, "I trust whatever God has for me!" And I know I CAN say that with full confidence. But sometimes I don't seem to believe what I know to be true. (What a paradox I am!) I say in one breath that I trust God fully, and then hear a noise outside my window and totally freak out. I say that God has a plan much bigger than me and then get an email saying I'm not scheduled to work AT ALL for the next 2 weeks and start to panic about how I'll pay for things. I so easily freak out - WHY!?! Why is it so easy to lose sight of how awesome, powerful and IN CONTROL our God is? I'm so glad that God's grace doesn't waver like my faith does. I'm thankful for songs like this one... songs that remind me of who God is, and how I can trust my life to Him.

And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
(Psalm 9:10)

The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.
(Nahum 1:7)

I'm bored!

Spending the past few days with kids made me think back to what I was like as a kid. I was such a whiner. I realize just how annoyed my Mom and Dad must have gotten with me when I would proclaim, "I'm bored!" As if they had the magical cure for my boredom. Sorry Mom and Dad! Well... I guess some things never change. I think I'm weird. I like to have down time and relax, and I'm the kind of person that freaks out if I don't get that for a while. But at the same time, once I've been alone for a little bit, I get really bored! Last summer was the first real summer break I'd had since before college. After the summer was over, I vowed that this summer I would make more plans and do more so that I wouldn't get so bored. When I get bored, I think too much... it's not a good thing. I was set on taking classes at seminary until I became 90% sure I was going to South Africa for a while this summer. Well, that fell through at the last minute, so here I am... a whole summer ahead of me and no plans. Sylvan doesn't even need me much yet, so I'm hardly even working. AHHHH!!! I love sleeping in - I really do. But once I wake up, I need something to do. I have a few house projects I want to work on, but the real projects need more skill than I have. This week's goal is to organize my room. I'm about half way there. Next week - the office. Then I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm also determined to get some books read this summer. I am notorious for starting a book and never finishing it. So I am going to read like crazy! :) I could use some suggestions, so please pass them along!

Bonnie = Beach person???

Are you kidding me?? Never in a million years would I have thought that I could enjoy the beach. I've just never been a huge fan of it. I've never liked being hot, getting burnt, or feeling like I just didn't fit in with all the bathing suit models laying out on the beach. Well gosh darn it... in the words of Amanda Sublett, "who flippin' cares?" I've been here at the beach since Friday afternoon, and I'm loving it! I did get sunburned the first day... oops... so that kinda put a damper on things, but I've still had a great time! I've learned my lesson - use sunscreen, and lots of it! I've also learned other lessons... vacationing with kids is quite enlightening! hehehe Oh yeah, I haven't mentioned that I'm here with Amanda Sublett and her 3 kids. Scott was here Friday through Sunday, but he had to go back for work Sunday evening. So now it's the 5 of us. We're having a great time. It makes me remember family vacations when I was younger. Fun times. :) Well... for some reason, I have major writer's block at the moment, so I'm not sure what to write.... I'll write more when I get home. For now - it's back to the beach!!! :)

No more kids!

Our final class picture!

Thursday night I said goodbye to my lovely Pre-Ks. I have absolutely LOVED this past year teaching. I think I only had about 5 mornings where I genuinely woke up saying "I don't want to go to work today!" I think 5 out of a whole year with 4 and 5 year olds is pretty great! Especially considering that last year by the last couple months I was saying it every morning as I dragged myself to work. I'm VERY much looking forward to actually returning to the same school for a second year. That has never happened to me in my teaching career. I'm thrilled to have finally found a school that I want to stay at. As per usual though, there is another change in my future. Though it is not 100% yet, more than likely I will be teaching a blended classroom next year. I will have 6 or 7 "typical" kids (is there such a thing? hehe) and 6 or 7 hearing impaired kids. I will also be co-teaching with a hearing impaired teacher (she's not hearing impaired, she's just taught H.I. kids before). I'm part excited, part scared to death. This will be a change. Co-teaching!? STRESSFUL!!! I'm not looking forward to that part. We'll plan lessons together, which on the surface sounds great... but the thing is, I'm not a great lesson planner... Well... I actually write great lesson plans - when I write them!! And half the time I do write them, I rarely follow exactly what is written on them. Co-teaching changes that up a bit... I will have more accountability to adhere to the lessons and the schedule. So yeah, that scares me. BUT, I am also excited at the chance to learn some sign language, and try something new! There will be 3 adults in the classroom now, which will help out A LOT since it is a HUGE classroom. Hopefully by adding another body, the kids will be monitored better. Plus, they only want to have 12 kids in the class total, and with 3 teachers, that gives a 1/4 teacher/child ratio, which is the same as I had this year and LOVED! So... I am praying that whoever they hire for the H.I. job will be a perfect match for Ms. Hayes and I. Three women in one room has potential for disaster, but I know God has a plan and I trust Him! :)

Working in the rain

So on Sunday afternoon when I called Scott to see if he could help me pick up a shed from Lowe's, I had no idea he was going to put it together too! Honestly, I just wanted it home so that whenever I could get to it, I could work on it, or my Dad could come help me. Well, Scott did plan to put it together - rain or shine! And unfortunate for us, it was definitely rain. Just as we were getting back to my house, the rains came tumbling down!! We put it together under my very small porch while the rains poured down around us. Now that's dedication!

Alex was a big help too!

Can you see the rain coming down in the background?? It really was pouring!

Meanwhile, Chris and Leanne were busy putting up a fan in Leanne's room. Usually a fan is not a complicated task, but anyone who's ever looked at the wiring in my house knows much better than to think such a silly thought. Whoever wired this house before knew NOTHING about wiring, so they're ll jacked up. Chris worked long t hard at the silly fan! Good job Chris! (And Leanne too. hehe:))

Flash Flood!

Crazy, isn't it!? I have NEVER seen the water this bad in the 2 years at my house. Work must be done SOON!

If you've never seen my house, then you don't know just how close the water is from my back door. I have to fix this soon because if it gets any worse, I'll have even bigger problems!

Here's the creepy old shed that needs to come down soon!

The water carried many things through the back yard - one being this nasty old soccer ball. Alex wanted it badly enough to trudge through the water, so it was all his!

the return to home repairs...

I've now owned this home for 2 years. Incredible, isn't it? For those of you who have been reading for at least that long... you've read a lot about this little house. My first year was all about home repairs... it seemed like every day something new was happening! The second year kind of slowed down. Some major jobs were finished, and I was out of money. Well, this summer is going to be a summer of home repairs! And I got started today. Leanne (my roommate), Chris (her boyfriend) and I went to Lowes. I bought a fan for her room and a garbage disposal (mine hasn't worked since I moved in!). Later Scott Sublett (from my adopted Summit family) came over to help me go back to Lowes and pick up a small storage shed. I have a old, creepy shed in my back yard and I've always said I was going to knock it down so I could somehow create a decent back yard. Well, the process has begun. Once the small shed is finished (Scott put almost ALL of it together today!), I'll move stuff from the creepy shed. Then, hopefully not too long after, we'll tear down the old one. Then the MAJOR project of digging a trench behind my house will begin. You see, there is an old drainage ditch behind my house and it is WAY backed up. There has always been some flooding, but today we saw an all new happening. The flooding turned into a RIVER! I'll have to post some pictures tomorrow, but I have never, in 2 years here, seen that much water flowing behind my house. It's definitely time for a MAJOR work day!!! Oh, and I also have to replace some windows. One of my little stain glass windows in the front of my house somehow got a hole in it. So yeah... lots of projects: a fan for Leanne's room, new garbage disposal, put up shed, tear down shed, whack down lots and lots of weeds, dig a BIG trench, and get new windows. Who thinks I can get all of this done before school starts in August!?!?!?! :)