Breaking Free

Hello Everyone! I hope this finds you well. Why are you so chipper, you might ask.... WELL it just so happens that CCA closed once again for the Swine Flu. This time, it was actually a really valid call I think. Last Wednesday we had 175 kids absent in our school, 30 of which were in kindergarten. That's more than a whole class. It's getting really crazy. So, I'm grateful for this time for all our kids to hopefully get well and not infect each other. Basically we had today (Friday) off and we don't have school again until Thursday. Teachers have to come in on Wednesday, but I'm cool with it, because it's not teaching!

I'm hoping this break will be a time of renewal and refreshment for me. I'm ready to move past my funk and start living my life again here. I've basically narrowed the funk down to just really feeling a lot of anxiety lately. I basically was keeping myself from doing things because I felt so anxious about them. Recently it has gotten to a point where I'm barely leaving my apt outside of school. I have no idea how this came over me, or when/how it started, but what I do know now, is I'm not going to let it beat me. This week, I started a new Bible study with my dear friend Kathy here. Consequently, the first week was about ANXIETY. Go figure. The Lord always knows when to step in eh? This verse has been quite a bit of comfort for me:

Psalm 91:14-16 (The Message Translation)

^14-16 "If you'll hold on to me for dear life," says God,
"I'll get you out of any trouble.
I'll give you the best of care
if you'll only get to know and trust me.
Call me and I'll answer, be at your side in bad times;
I'll rescue you, then throw you a party.
I'll give you a long life,
give you a long drink of salvation!"

I would just ask that you continue to pray for me, that God would just completely take hold of my struggles with Anxiety and just completely remove it from my life. Fear and worry is not of Him, and I don't want it anymore. I hope you can be encouraged by the verse above as much as I have been this week. I also trust that God is going to use my willingness to confess this struggle of mine to make Himself known, and I can rejoice in that. :)

On to new things, first things first, I got a new haircut, and I love it! It's cut to just below my jaw line, so it's the shortest I've had it in a while. I guess I'm copying my sister :) Here it is:

Next, here are some pics from Kathy's Birthday party last weekend. It was so fun!

Me and the Birthday girl!

From the left, Erik, Jake, Anthony, Cameron, and April. We had pizza and salad... yum. Apparently this was the night for stripes... And yes, Cameron is really into wearing bow ties right now. We try to stop him but what can I say he's addicted. He wears one pretty much every day.
Just kidding. I don't know why/where this bow tie came from?

I think Anthony had food in his teeth.

Cameron, April and Narae.

Kathy and Amanda enjoying some dinner.

Blowing out her 22 candles! The way they do candles here is you have how ever many tall candles for the tens place, and however many short candles for the ones place. So Kathy had 2 tall and 2 small.

Kathy got this awesome blanket from Pak In and Halla. If you're jealous, please tell me, and I'll bring you one home for Christmas :)

Kathy and Halla with the awesome blanket! It even has a little tail in the back.

The whole gang minus April and Erik.

One more time. Yes, my butt is still THAT big. hahaha.

The next picture is from a hike we took our kids on last week to teach the words HIKE and CLIMB. We were reading the book Happy Birthday, Moon. It was so fun.

Yes, I'm bringing 1994 back by tying my sweatshirt around my wast. Jealous?

I took these pictures for Amanda back home who is doing a Flat Stanley project for her college class. This is me and my kids with Flat Stanley:

Me and Sunny racing down the slides! We only had 3 kids in our class on Thursday, so we played a little... don't tell my principal :)

I'll update again soon... I have plenty of spare time in the next couple of days! Woohoo!

Lyrics for today:
I am going through a Christmas music phase (I know it's early, but it reminds me of the special times at home usually had during this season) so I chose these lyrics from the song

"Breath of Heaven"

I am waiting in a silent prayer
I am frightend by the load I bear
in a world as cold as stone
must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now...
Be with me now

Breath of Heaven, hold me together
Be forever near me, Breath of Heaven
Breath of Heaven, light in my darkness
Pour over me Your holiness, for You are holy
Breath of Heaven