CHINA Bound!

One of my friends recently challenged me to this question. “If you could accomplish ANYTHING in your life for God and KNEW you couldn’t fail, what would you do?”

I thought about this and came up with this answer…

There are a few things that I am truly passionate about in this world some being—a relationship with Jesus, loving people, all things education, and traveling to new places.   Lately, I have reflected a lot on what does that mean for my life? How can I reach the most people, be an effective teacher, and share a vibrancy for life? If I knew that I wouldn’t fail I would want to build meaningful relationships with people, impact education on a large scale, and never allow life to become mundane.  As far as how that relates to a specific job, I am still processing that.  Currently, I love my job and see where the Lord has called me to impact 20 at-risk kiddos and inspire them to be outstanding in everyway.  Over my short 5 years of adult life, I realize how blessed I am to wake up and love going to work everyday. 

A few weeks ago, I was slightly disappointed that the Lord closed the door on one opportunity, but quickly realized again that His hand was once again clearly on my life.  I was offered an opportunity to travel to China for a month and model “best classroom practices” to the teachers in a Chinese school.  God really orchestrated this opportunity and continues to work out every potential glitch along the way.  For example, 80% of the trip is paid for and we leave right after I finish finals for the summer session of graduate school.  Most importantly, my principal is highly supportive of this trip and is allowing me to make up the days that I miss (the first two weeks of school)!  Yikes…what teacher misses the beginning of the year? This teacher does and I am resting in God’s promise of faithfulness and strength. 

For three weeks I will have the opportunity to teach Chinese elementary students, but also to model for the Chinese teachers.  Each day after class, I will meet with the Chinese teachers and debrief on what they have learned and field any questions.  These teachers are excited to learn new ways to instruct their classes and I am passionate about guiding them on their quest for learning.  I will be bringing along videos of my class and examples of different types of teaching.  In the evenings, we will be living and building relationships with the Chinese.

I am going to China from July 1- July 26^th.  Currently, I am trying to raise $2,000 for my Chinese Visa and flight.  Please be praying for the support raising process.  If you made it all the way to the end of this novel...thanks for the opportunity to share a little piece of my reflections and passions.  

Love, 

Brittany

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Active April

My sweet mama and papa bought me a grill (and tools) for Easter. Oh how life has changed from getting pretty Easter dresses. 

My dad wouldn't let me get a gas grill...he said it was too dangerous and would be kept too close to my house. Hence...my charcoal grill. I'm now a grillmaster!

I went home to RIC to see the 'rents run the Monument Ave 10k.  They did great! 

ML and I were so PROUD!

Ash and I celebrated her 27th Birthday!

Finally, it was SPRING BREAK! I have hated that driveway since I moved in for the sole reason that when it rains I get VERY muddy.  

Blake (JUNK RESCUE) to the RESCUE! 

The FINISHED product! TADA! It makes the driveway look SO much bigger and I LOVE IT.  

Plus...its all recycled rock and cost me 1/8th of the normal cost of new gravel. 

Then, I planted.  Hopefully, I develop a green thumb.  My track record isn't so high. The lady at Home Depot said that begonias grow themselves. Let's hope so. 

I also hung out with this sweet monster. I may call her Little Gaga because she is CARAZY. 

Little Gaga takes a bath. 

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March Madness in Picture Review

March was a pretty crazy month for me.  Here is what my phone tells me happened this month. 

Michelle and I went to the Kings Kitchen (my most favorite rest!) All the proceeds go to ministries around town and it supports the homeless and gives jobs to the down and out.  All things I love. 

This is a little project I have been working on for awhile.  I collected knobs from Anthropologie and made myself a jewelry rack. Now, my room has been repainted so it looks even better! So Feng Shui!

I ordered about 5000 books and then organized a ton of people to wrap them all for our BH kiddos. 

One of my little cuties had 7 fillings from the dental van and came back to me like this. Not sure if you can see the sticker but it says WARNING: YOUR CHILD'S MOUTH IS NUMB. He may drool all over you. :)

This is my mini me...many a parent has asked me if she is my child.  Sidenote: It is humorous to see how many different ethnicities people think I am. 

Bobcat's game outing, but more importantly USHER is coming to CLT in April and,,,

 GUESS WHO has tickets?!?!?!

Yay for Rubbermaid seats at the Bobcats game.  Double Yay for Gerald Wallace coming back to the Queen City! Triple Yay for great friends!

Happy St. Paddy's Day via our own personal leprechaun!

Happy St. Paddy's Day Round 2 from the parade in Uptown!

After the parade we went to find some lunch, but Mason decided to join the parade:)

My cute house after I spent all day cleaning and blowing leaves.  Why pay someone when you can do it? Granted, I "forgot" to blow the leaves in the fall so it was only 5 months overdue. 

After I cleaned my house, I decided to add to my wardrobe.  Enter my new gala attire.  

To finish off the month, I read this book which is written by the same guy who wrote The 4 Hour Work Week.  That book revolutionized E's life and business so I decided I wanted it to revolutionize my health.  It is a great book-I highly reccomend.  Check in 90 days and I will let you know if it works.  Update: 2 weeks in and I am carb and sugar free and feeling great! 

Stop back in to see the wrap up of March and the beginning of April.  

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favorite blog

This blog (below) was inspirational and refreshing to me. I hope you enjoy...

naptime diaries: the real running story & the d word: "psalm 28:6-7 I've written before about that magical 8.9 mile run in November. Before that day, the most I could eek out was a mile..."

The Divine's Image

"We have never interacted with anyone who doesn't bear the Divine's image."  -from CS Lewis' The Weighted Glory

Yesterday, I said goodbye to this little one as he is moving back to Mexico.  It just reminded me that every day I have the ability to impact so many lives and EVERY life bears God's image.  

I will miss his smile and his laugh and his goofy questions.  He impacted me in ways that I hope I will always remember.  I want to remember his passion and love for knowledge, his positive demeanor, and the way he loved others and made sure they knew that. This little one impacted me and his 17 other classmates.  We will miss him. 

What a privileged I have to be able to learn from him. It just reminds me that everyone I encounter bears "the divine's image!" If I would remember that in my daily interactions...it is SO powerful. 

Here are some of our cards for our friend.

We will miss you Little One.  If I taught you anything, I hope it is that you are brilliant and will do great things in your life!

Love,

Miss Slagle

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.shredded.

I pulled myself off the couch and headed to the gym that is maybe 1 mile away.  As I was pulling out of my driveway, it started to sprinkle and then all of a sudden it was torrential down pours. I felt like I was underwater. I listened a little closer to the radio and they said that we would be getting huge hail and a huge thunderstorm. Do you think that would stop me from going to the gym? NO.  

Well....YES.  I couldn't find a parking spot.  Let's rephrase that. The ones that were open were really REALLY far away and I had on a white (kinda already see through) shirt with a white tank top.  Not good for torrential downpours. By the time I would have RUN to get into the gym I would have been soaked and my shoes would have squeaked on the treadmill for the 3 miles on my schedule for today.  

I headed home and broke open Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.  I have probably had this for over a year, but I opened it and popped it in.  A 20 minute work out sounded excellent EXCEPT I didn't have any hand weights.  To improvise I grabbed soup cans. Now, I am not an iron woman, but I can lift more than a soup can. Tomorrow I will go out any buy new hand weights so that I actually get the strength/tone benefit.  

(This was when Jillian was telling me that I needed to not quit and suck up the 2 minutes of punching)

So, I did.  Here is my little make-shift step up.  My yoga mat came in handy. 

When I was laying down on my mat I noticed how dusty my floor was under my couch, so I think after dinner I have a job to do.  Clean and organize my house. Read 5 educational articles. Write 2 papers.  Quit "vacationing" aka blogging and GET TO WORK!

Now, at least I did my 1st day of Level 1 the 30 Day Shred. I am well on my way to be shredded according to Jillian. 

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weekend thrills

My weekend started off on a positive note with this little one working so hard all day long on Friday. 

Then, for fun (lame we know) we gathered in the library and watched a dvd on how to teach our students to become better readers. We even popped popcorn and sat in the kids chairs. Daring huh?

Not pictured: Saturday I worked for The New Teacher Project ALL day.  From 7-5:30 I interviewed potential candidates for teaching positions in CLT.  I LOVED it and afterwards I went to dinner at my adopted families house.  Oh how I miss them.  

Sunday brought church, Target, Trader Joes, and an HOA meeting.  The HOA meeting was very exciting because we are quite close to setting a date for when the good half of the street are going to redo their driveways.  YAY!  No more muddy shoes when it rains. I bought a little Oscar party something something and some new viatmins (because my SHAPE magazine told me too--and my mom too).  

And finally...wine, lesson plans, some of the georgia wives, the oscars, and lucy(the dog who likes me--a rare find).  

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