~and it's funny how life ends up always turning out~

It's funny how life works itself out, you know?

One day back in January of 2013, I was minding my own business and actually getting ready to go to Wichita with a friend of mine to do some shopping at the Spice Merchant.  Before I left my house, I checked my Facebook page and found a friend request from some man that lived in a place I had never heard of before.

Montrose, Colorado.

At first I wasn't sure who he was although his name sounded pretty familiar to me.  Turns out it was a kid, now rather grown up, who used to go to Haven High School back in Kansas just like I did.  40 years had passed by us.  We talked on the phone, corresponded back and forth in emails, and I went out to visit to reconnect with him.  

I guess you could call this our first date or something.  Mike took me to the Grand Canyon of the Gunnison that January morning.  He was wearing an Oakland Raiders sweatshirt that little did I know, he wore an awful lot.


It wasn't just one visit that I made but rather about 5 of them before we decided that the road was getting too long to just keep going back and forth like that.  And so, we got married.

It really is funny how life works itself out.   I told Mike in April of 2013 that I wanted to get married on the last day of school and it had to be at school in front of all the kids and folks who worked there.  I wanted the kids to witness our ceremony so they would know what happened to me and that I was going to be just fine.  Really, I was just waiting for him to say "no" to that idea but rather than having a problem with it, he just simply replied,

"OK."
And so that's what we did.
I felt fortunate because some guys might have vetoed that kind of idea right away.  
Not Mike.

30 minutes before this photo was taken, I was still running around in my "teacher" clothes for the day.  One of my friends suggested about 15 minutes before our wedding began that I ought to get changed sooner or later.

Never in my wildest of dreams did I entertain any notion of where the road would lead us after our marriage that day in late May of 2013.  I packed up my things and headed west to the mountains with Mike where I figured we would live for quite some time.  I never thought I would find a place to teach there but I surely did.  Exactly 6 days before school began that August, I got the call to teach at a wonderful little town called Olathe.   A fourth grade position had just opened up and they needed someone to take it.  I couldn't make that phone call to ask for an interview fast enough.  I stayed on for yet another year after that as I took one of the spots that opened up in first grade for the 2014-15 school year.  

The class that saved their teacher was this one.  They didn't know how badly I needed them. Those children gave me a purpose, a real reason for being there.  

We were pretty much settled.  My extreme homesickness for Kansas subsided, I made many new friends and began to carve out my own niche in the San Juan mountains of southwestern Colorado.

Then life took a change for us.

By mid-March of 2015 we realized that Mike's job would be downsized quite a bit and since we knew that sooner or later we'd end up retiring in the great state of Texas, we made the decision to move on quicker than we had planned.  I didn't think I'd ever be a teacher in Texas but sure enough, a job came open in the small town of Petrolia where I would complete my 38th year in education.  Mike found the perfect job for himself as the manager of the hardware store here in our town of Burkburnett.  

Life was very good.

At the end of this school year, I knew it would be time to look for a different position.  My Texas certificate was going to expire soon and in order to keep it current, I would have to take a battery of tests.  Rather than going through that process, I secured an Oklahoma teaching certificate and this week was offered a perfect position for me in a small town not even 10 miles from our home here on the border.  It's a wonderful school that I look forward to being a part of.  I cannot wait to meet the 3rd graders that I will have and even more excited to build a strong classroom community with them.

Through all of the changes in the last 3 years, one thing has remained constant and pretty much unfailing.  I have always held on to the faith that the good Lord above was going to show me the way that my life should go.  I remained convinced and still am so today, that God wouldn't just pluck me up from my lifelong home in Kansas and throw me down in the mountains of Colorado or upon the banks of the Red River here in Texas and leave me to fend for myself.  He knew all along what the plan was and when the time was right, He'd be letting me know.

This week, He did.
Funny how life turns out when you leave it in the hands of one mightier than yourself.
Thanks God for taking care of me.  

KANSAS~I remember you each day and carry you tucked deep inside of my heart.