family pic

family pic

Saturday, June 23, 2012

My name is Christina... and I'm a Redhead.

The recent movie Brave has got me thinking a bit about my red hair. I can honestly say that I love my hair and do not wish I was born with a different hair color... But that definitely wasn't always the case.

When I was a kid I HATED/DESPISED/LOATHED my hair!!! I had a thick head of crazy frizzy curls of red. I remember getting on the bus every morning with my sister (who also had red hair) and being called carrot top, fire head, etc... which would continue at school until I made it home. I remember being so disappointed that God would give me red hair. I just wanted to look normal like everyone else. Why couldn't he have created me to have straight blond hair... oh yes, and freckle free!! I begged my dad to let me color my hair, but he wouldn't so much as let me put highlights in it. I remember putting lemon juice in my hair during the summer and laying on in the sun, hoping it would lighten my hair. I'd settle for just a strawberry blond, but I had no such luck. My hair was stubborn and indestructible! It did not lighten with the lemon juice... or the sun-in spray... or even with the home highlight kit I secretly tried to put in my hair during a mission trip. 

I remember all of my teachers loved my hair and would compliment it, and at least once a week I would hear an older person tell me "You have the prettiest hair" or "look at your cute freckles". I honest and truly interpreted those comments as "You are such a cute nerdy looking girl". I HATED getting compliments from older people because I thought they just felt sorry for me :P

Books and movies did not help my hatred for my red hair. What color of hair did the nerd or the ugly duckling have in all of the stories? Yes, you guessed it. RED hair. But not just red hair. CURLY red hair!! 

Once I got in high school I started to learn how to tame my curls a bit. I discovered some glorious things called hair gell and hair spray! I started to realized that my curly red hair made me unique.... and I liked being unique. When I switched schools back to the high school where some of my childhood tormenters went I even got an apology one day. The guy who ruthlessly tormented me came up to me one day and said "I just wanted to let you know I'm sorry for making fun of your hair when we were kids. I actually think its really awesome now." That kind of made my day :) 

Now I am all grown up and I can honestly say not only have I come to grips with God giving me red curly hair, but I have come to love my red curly hair. The past couple of years I have grown it out... it hasn't been long since I was 14... and I am actually proud of my long red locks of curls :) 

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Where I am

I thought its time to end this little three part series about my new chapter in life :) So, here's the recap....

God led me to quit KCQ's cakes and go back to school to pursue a career in counseling... plus a few other details...

So, I began to take steps to pursue what seemed like a bit of a long shot dream. I figured it would take me two years. I went into Piedmont and met with the Registrar. He, ever so patiently, began to look at my mess of transcripts. You see, I spent a year and a half on campus. Went back a couple of years later...did another semester. A couple of years later went back online... and now wanted to finish up :P After a couple of hours...yes it took hours... he told me if I added the counseling minor I could finish in a couple of years...a couple of semesters full time and a couple part time. If I just added a christian ministry minor I could graduate next May. Yes, that's right....walk down the glorious stage in my cap and gown and receive my degree in a YEAR!!!! To do anything in counseling you need a master's degree in counseling, which I hope to pursue next fall...sooooo, I decided to drop the counseling minor and graduate in less than a year. Woot Woot!

It gets even better. I told the registrar that I really wanted my school schedule to match up with the boy's school schedule. I wanted to take them to school and pick them up...especially with it being Carter's first year in Kindergarden. My schedule matched perfectly up with their school schedule except for an early class on Monday and Wednesday. We looked at the online schedule and that class is offered online!! I thought that would be such a long shot to get our schedules matched up, but they are. Isn't God good :) I don't have any classes on Tuesday and Thursdays, so I'm hoping to use those days to get caught up on work and homework, so I can still invest in my boys. 

So here I am now. About to embark on this crazy adventure... and I'm so excited. Last week I recommitted it to the Lord again as I had began to OVER plan (trying to get every detail figured out for the next 10 years :P. I want to make sure I'm not putting my hope in my dream, but in the Lord. I don't want to be in a place where I'll be devastated if it doesn't work out, but trust His provision and protection for whatever direction He wants me and my family to go... basically being okay with whatever happens because I know He loves me and is giving me whats best for me. I start a couple of online classes next month. Lets pray that my next post isn't a helpless cry about how insane my life is :P

Sunday, June 3, 2012

A New Chapter Part 2

I thought it was time to continue my last blog because I'm sure you all have anxiously been checking out my blog to see if I finished telling about our new chapter in life (or at least that's what I'd like to believe bc   it makes me feel kind of important :) So, a brief summary of my last post: I was running KCQ's Cakes with my business partner Tabatha and we both felt like we needed to phase out the business bc our children were getting neglected, so we did, and God blessed :)

Right when I made that decision I knew I needed to start looking for a replacement job. I hadn't even gotten the word out except to a few close friends when I received a call from a dear lady in my sunday school. She wanted me to manage an online video project for kindermusik. I took the job and was able to get my work done during the kids' nap time and even bring my computer to mcdonalds and work while they played in the play area. The work was WONDERFUL compared to working with cake! Since then I've been able to manage a couple of other pilots with them and I love it. One of the pilots is international and I get to correspond with people from all over the world. I have always loved interacting with different cultures and its been fun for me to have a job where I get to do so.

The work I'm doing is part time and this fall Carter will be attending school and Kydon's therapists have been telling me that it would be really beneficial for him to go to daycare or preschool. For the past year I have felt like God has been wanting me to go back to school to finish up my degree, but I didn't think it was possible. While doing the cakes, I knew I had to give up that career to do so and I didn't want to do that, so I said "no". I also didn't know how I would pay for school... another "no thank you Lord".  I didn't think I could work and go to school... "can't do it God". I also had Kydon home with me and didn't want to put him in preschool... "see, there is no way God". Oh, and there was no way I'd be able to work my school schedule around the boys' school schedule. I did NOT want them to have to go to before or after school care, especially with Carter starting his first year of school. I basically told God "I like the idea of going back to school, but it will literally take a miracle to work everything out to enable me to go back".

He continued put the idea in my head until one night I surrendered it to Him. I decided that I wanted to go back. I've always dreamed of being a counselor and feel like that is God's calling on my life. I knew I couldn't just wait for a counseling career to land in my lap... I had to plan and prepare for it. The first step would be going back to school. When I thought of all the factors I had going against me and of everything that would have to work out just right in order for me to attend I became discouraged... and worried. Eventually I just prayed and surrendered it to God. I told Him if it was His will I was going to trust Him to work everything out for me to go back. If not, then I would be okay with it and would know it couldn't be worked out because it was not His will. I had such a peace after that.

And I guess there will now be a part three to this post bc, once again, this is getting incredibly long :) Stay tuned for more ;)