Amberella’s blog

This post is a show case of my hard work over the past few months...

Here's some pictures of our flower beds and garden:

Next is the quilt I've been working on for a while now, it's not quite done, but its close enough to show off:

More blooms 011

More blooms 013

More blooms 012

Late on Saturday night, my good friends Trevor and Lauren brought a beautiful baby girl, Katie Joy (who's name means Pure Joy), into the world.  15 short hours later she died.  Lauren and Tevor had been aware for months that this may be the case, they had been going to see specialist in Indianapolis and we had come together as a community to pray for them many times, but God had a different plan.  This morning, Katie Joy's funeral was one of deep sadness, but also of deep hope.  We sang the hymns "It is Well With my Soul" and "Great is Thy Faithfulss", there was a sense that death and pain will not have the last say, but that one day we will all be together with Katie Joy again and that for her short life she only knew love. 

"Brothers, we do not want you to...grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope." 1 Thessalonias 4:13

1.  Matt and I joined the Gospel choir at our church last week.  We're singing with them this Sunday.  We both really love it.

2. I've been spending a large chunk of my time in our backyard pulling weeds, planting flowers and just generally making things look nice.  Next week we're planting a vegetable garden and I'm looking foward to fresh veggies later this summer.

3. Matt was interviewed in our local paper a few weeks ago about his novella.  You can go here to read it:

We had a fantastic time camping this weekend!  Possibly the best part was that is was 80 degrees during the day.  It got pretty cold at night, but we made it.  We went with Sarah, Dan, Josh and Kyle which turned out to be a really fun group.  We got there on Thursday night, the guys set up camp while Sarah and I went into Ithaca and bought the groceries we'd need for that week.  We stayed up late around the camp fire and at smores and talked and laughed a lot. 

On Friday we hiked around a the tallest waterfall in north America which was really beautiful.  I also skipped my first rock, which I was excited about.  When we got back we got ready and headed into Ithaca for dinner and headed to see Matt's play.  Matt's play was great!  Much better to watch than to read.  They did a great job with the characters.  We have it on video so we'll be able to show it to people who are interested.  I'll try to post it if I can.  It was a one act so it's not too long.  The rest of the one acts were funny, but I liked Matt's best (and I'm not at all bias :).  After the play we went to an after party with the cast.  Then back to the camp sight for more smores and jiffy pop. 

Saturday we took it easy in the morning and then we went hiking again.  This time we went to a gorge walk that ended at Cornell University.  The walk was really beautiful, but almost all of it was going up stairs which was a little tiring to say the least!  Then we walked through Cornell's campus (which is also really pretty) and headed back to our car.  We had great ice cream and then drove to a great winery outside of town where they were nice enough to let us in to do a wine tasting even though they had just closed.  They had some really good stuff and the grounds were really nice.  Saturday night we had Hobo dinners which were great and sat around the fire. 

I would definately love to go back there were a lot more things we could have done, but didn't have time for.  I recommend Ithaca to any vacationer! 

Well, it's been a little while since I last posted.  I am come down the home stretch as far as classes go.  I have a finals the last week of April.  This week I am working on writing a paper that is due next Tuesday.  I also have another paper due that week (a much shorter one though) and a few other things.  After the papers are done I have another presentation and then finals.  I'm not to worried about finals because I only have two and their not cumulative, so it won't be too rough.  Then I have to get started working on my applications to Grad school.  I have two schools I'm applying to, plus Ball State again.

April is shaping up to be a pretty busy month.  On Thursday my parents and Breanna will be coming down for a visit.  It's Bean's spring break and she's going to visit Ball State and Depauw Universities.  I've been trying to convince her that Ball State is where she needs to go, but I don't know if she's quite convinced yet.  Hopefully this week with do it for her!  They'll be here until at least Saturday, but possibly will be staying until Sunday.  Next weekend we're heading to Ithica, NY to see Matt's first one act play be performed.  We're going to be camping, which will be cold, but cheap.  So our weekends are pretty full. 

We very much enjoyed the lovely weather yesterday.  We spend a lot of time outside (I got a little bit of a burn on my nose!) we walked to the Sally's, our local neighborhood ice cream shop.  We ran into some neighborhood kids and took them with us.  They ended up coming to our house afterward, we sat on our porch swing and played Duck, Duck, Goose and played their favorite game with is "Supermodel" where I take pictures of them on my digital camera and then we go inside and look at them on the computer.  Here are a few of the pictures we took:

Aren't they cute!  They're sister and they might be my favorite kids.  We had a good time!  Now I must get one to my paper!

Last night 4 of the ladies from church took my out to our favorite bar because I got rejected by Ball State.  It was blast!  It didn't feel like a pity party at all!  Jen, Charity, Leslie and Mandy are crazy and very fun.  We started out the night talking about my options (I'm applying to two different schools and looking for jobs), but soon the conversation took on a life of it's own.  I'll spare you the "had to be there details", but sufice it to say that we had what Jen called "two beer" conversation.  I am contiually blown away by the support I feel from this great community!

I'm actually kind of excited about my options for this fall.  There is a Guidance Counselor job at an area school that I'm going to apply for.  I am applying to Indiana Weslyan University and Martin University which are both about an hour away, but in opposite directions from Muncie (IWU is in Marion and MU is in Indy).  I am most hoping that I get into MU because it started out as a University for low-income minority adult students (not they accept anyone), but that means that it is very diverse in race, age and socioeconomic status.  I could be a minority!!  Which is a little bit intimidating, but I think very important.  I'd love to be able to counsel anyone who comes through my door, but I feel like that goal is hampered by being surrounded by people who are similar to me.  Grad school would be a completely different experience at MU and I'm nervous and excited about that. 

Oh, and I've decided not to get a licence in school counseling.  I still think I would enjoy it, but if that's all my degree is in I only have a narrow focus.  With a mental health licence I can still work with kids, but I have a lot more options available to me.  Plus I think I would be a pretty darn good counselor! ;)

In other, much sadder news, Matt's grandmother passed away yesterday morning.  Which is sad, but also a relief because she had been declining in health for a while and it's nice to know that she's well and in a better place.  The funeral is tomorrow morning.  Everyone seems to be handling things very well.

Well, I think that is all for now... 

I found out on Saturday that I have been rejected by the Ball State Counseling Program. :(  I dealt on Saturday by having a good cry, calling my mom and going to bed early.  Today, I dealt by researching other schools in the area that I could attend and looking up jobs that I could apply for.  Tomorrow, who knows...

I forgot to share Matt's fantastic news!!  A friend of a friend of ours (who we've met a few times) heard that Matt was releasing a serial novel and offered to put an advertisement for the blog in a program at the small theater where she is Managing Director.  She also mentioned that if Matt ever wanted to convert one of his works into a one act play that she and her staff would consider preforming it.  So Matt , without even reading over it agian, sent her a one act play (that no one, but a professor at Ball State had ever read) and yesterday we heard back that she and her staff loved it and want to preform it!!  They're starting rehersals next week.  It will be put on in April!!  So Matt and I are going to take a drive out to Ithica, New York (where the theater is) and see it!  Purhapse spending money we don't have, but Matt only gets his first play preformed once so we are determined to get there!  Anyone else who would like to come it welcome, but we understand that it's a little inconvient!  Anyway, I mostly wanted to share the good news!

The websit for the theater is: www.wingspacetheater.org if you're interested, there's nothing about Matt's play posted yet, but it's called Doug and Jessica if you want to keep your eye out for it. 

If you're interested in reading the play (it's less than 5 pages) just let me know and I'll email it to you. 

I have such a talented husband! :)

Here I sit at my computer listening to Eva Cassidy sing Imagine, which is all well and good except that I should be asleep right now.  It's midnight or 11, if you go by body time.  It snowed a lot here this weekend and I am getting stir crazy...I am tired of being cold and being inside.  I'm ready to get out in nature and explore the world.  Boo the cold!

Enough complaining.  I had my first day of work on Friday, it went well, I was suprised how quickly my CNA knowledge came back to me.  I very much enough having one client at a time to take care of (as opposed to 20 or more).  I never work longer the 3 or 4 hours at one place either so that's also nice.  I think that I will tolerate to moderately enjoy this job depending on which client I am with at the time.  So that's better then hating it or having a crazy boss.

This week is my spring break so I'm trying to get ahead on some homework.  I have a research paper due at the end of the semester and I'm trying to at least get a started on it so that I don't have to worry about it so much at the end of the year.  I still don't know if I am officially accepted and it's getting to be a litle irritating, especially since summer classes tend to fill up fast and there's nothing I can do about it until I get accepted.  I talked to someone in the office last week who said they should be sending out letters in two weeks.  It's nice to know that I haven't been rejected yet, I guess, hopefully I'll find out for sure sooner than later.

Speaking of grad school, I found out recently that it would only take an extra semester for me to get a dual licensure in school and mental health counseling (meaning that I could do regular one on one counseling).  I think I might go for it (if I get in that is!).  I like the idea of having that versatility, especially because the school counseling jobs in muncie are very limited.  And the more I learn the theories of counseling the more I want to do it.  I think I would especially want to work with children and adolences, but adults would be ok too.  Plus I think it would be great for our church to have a licensed counselor in attendance.  I like the idea of being able to contribute a specialty.  I can also do more as a school counselor if I have my mental health license. 

I'm still not tired...

I know I promised to post more about my job, but I have actually started yet.  I am supposed to get trained on Friday so hopefully I'll be starting my own shifts by Monday of next week.  I'll make sure to post about how things go.

Next week is my spring break.  I'm looking forward to having some time to work on a few papers that I've been slacking on.  I can't believe it's March already!  I only have 2 months until the end of the semester.  I don't want to let all of my end of the year papers sneak up on me.  My goal is to at least get a concrete focus and get the research done.  It would be great if I could get the papers completely done, but I'm not going to get my hopes up to high. 

On Sunday Matt and I went to hang out with our friend Sarah and her boyfriend Dan in Indianapolis.  They've been dating for a few months, but this was the first time we had hung out just the four of us.  It was really fun.  We went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art and then we went to Broadripple and ate at Boogy Burger which I had never even heard of before Sunday, but is possibly my new favorate burger joint.  Yum!  It's a tiny hole in the wall kind of place and we sat outside (thanks to the beautiful weather on Sunday) I'd love to go back again.  Then we went to Dan's appartment and hung out.  Dan very patiently played guitar with Matt (who is a noobie), then Sarah played and we sang.  We watched part of a cheese movie and had tea and strawberry short cake (after getting shakes at BB).  It was all in all a great evening.  I love watching Sarah and Dan together, he's such a great guy and I couldn't be happier for Sarah.  She is an amazingly wonderful person who deserves and equally wonderful guy and I'm glad that she found one.  Aside from being a geniuninely good guy, he also enjoys laughing and doesn't mind when I don't get his jokes and tell him I don't find him funny.  He also has a giant televion which doesn't hurt.

I am currently dying for warm weather!  I feel like this winter had lasted extra long and everytime I open my drawer and see my tank tops and capris I want to wear them in protest (though I don't think winter would notice or care if it did).  I know in my head that winter can't last forever, but it doesn't feel like.  Why oh why do I live in Indiana?!? 

Right now I am listening to Janis Ian and loving her.  I don't actually own any of her CDs, I really need to remidy that soon.  I am really becoming a folk music lover, I never would have thought it to be true, but it is.  When I was 13 or 14 I remember thinking that I would never listen to anything but rock until I was "old", well I guess I must be old now because I hardly ever listen to rock anymore.  I really need my Johnny Cash, Over the Rhine and Patty Griffin.  I even listen to Willy Nelson sometimes.  My folk obsession is getting slightly out of hand, but I just can't stop myself!  I am slowly becoming more and more of a hippie.  I actually stopped wearing antiperspirant.  I now were an all natural deodorant and my goal is to slowly fade out harsh chemicals from my life (processed foods, chemical cleaners, etc...) I want to be all natural.  We're even going to plant a garden this year.  Long hair and bell bottoms can't be too far behind.