I'm Legal Today!!!

So, I am kinda excited about the fact that I am 21 today!  Even though it just means that I have more responsibilities and decisions to make, it is still kinda fun.  Today was pretty normal, I had to go to school (first day back after spring break) and then I was off to work.  But, I thoroughly enjoyed my day.  God was so good and gave me an awesome day.

And, I have even more good news!!!  I signed my very first lease yesterday!  My sister and I have an apartment!!!  It is fully furnished, 2 bedroom/2 bath, with a great sized kitchen and living room and washer and dryer.  It is so nice!  God totally provided everything that we needed and much more.  I am so very excited!  I am ready to move in now!  So, the decision is made.  I will be transferring to K-State in the fall.  I am so excited to begin living on my own and even more excited about living with my sister.  We are so great together and have tons of fun every time we are together.  God is so good.  I just have to continue to trust His plan.  I wish that I could see everything all laid out and know exactly how everything is going to work out, but that isn't how God operates.  I am learning so much about trusting Him. 

Well, I am off to finish stuff for school tomorrow.  I have no idea when I will next update.  Life is just starting to get crazy.  And facebook is taking more of my time since there isn't as much maintenance.  But, I haven't forgotten about my xanga peeps!  Have an awesome week!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

I wish I could go back to being a kid.  Life was so easy back then.  The only decisions I had to make was what my favorite color was going to be for the day, or what game I wanted to play with my friends.  But, I am in the place of life that I am in.  I am approaching my 21st birthday and having to embrace the responsibilities that have rested on my shoulders in the last few years.  It's all about learning to grow up and handle responsibility in a mature way. 

Well, I am having to make a slightly life-changing decision--at least changing as far as what I am familiar with.  I am incredibly restless being here at home.  I am ready to move on to my final destination.  Community college has been a great starting place for me and I am happy that I started there.  But, I really feel that it is time to move one.  I am tired of taking required music classes to keep my scholarship.  The frustrating thing is that I have six hours in music classes every semester, hours that aren't going towards my degree at all.  I am running into some issues with my choir/ensemble director that is adding stress to my life.  And the direction my life is taking, it seems that God is opening these doors for me to move. 

This weekend I am gonna talk to my parents about what is going on and hopefully they will be able to accept the fact that I want to move.  My parents are very accepting, but sometimes it is hard for them to embrace something when they are so dead set on another way.  I would appreciate your prayers as I begin this process of transferring.  Paperwork here I come!  Jesus has given so much grace in helping me not to be stressed out by all the changes going on in my life.  He is so wonderful!

Most Kindest Kansas Citian?? Me???

I am so touched.  Two of my piano students nominated me for "Most Kindest Kansas Citian" award.  What in the world?!  It was so precious!  Anyway, I just wanted to share their essays with you, I am so proud to be able to teach such wonderful kids!  

       "I nominated my piano teacher Miss Catrina as Kindest Kansas Citian.  I have known Miss Catrina for 4 months.  She is a good piano teacher and a nice person.
        Miss Catrina always smiles and laughs when she is teaching me.  When I get stuck she says things like "never say never" and "never give up".  This makes me feel happy and want to keep trying.  I like when she plays a song along with me because I can learn the song faster.  When I finish a song, she cheers for me and she gives me a sticker.  Sometimes she teases me and keeps saying "Are you sure you want a sticker?"  She makes me laugh.
       Miss Catrina makes piano fun.  I like Miss Catrina and I think she likes me too.  I hope that she wins the Kindest Kansas Citian award.  She's already a winner to me."          ---Josh, 7 years old

"I nominated Catrina Brown because she inspires me.  She is my piano teacher.  I did a recital last year and she played there and she was fantastic!  She played up and down the piano.  I was amazed.  I wasn't good at the time so I wanted to be just like her and I still do.  Catrina is always nice even when I mess up.  When I practice with her I can open up to her.  She will always help me with my problems too!  She is so fun when you get to know her.  That is why I nominated Catrina Brown."               ----Elizabeth, 10 years old

How sweet are my kids?!  I am so blessed to be able to teach such great children!  I love teaching and enjoy working with all my students every week.  It is humbling to realize just how much my kids watch me and look up to me.  Even during piano lessons I can be a shining light.  Anyway, I just wanted to brag on my kids a little it!  Thanks for putting up with it! 

And...embarrassing story #2

So, Kansas City has been so fortunate to have several winter storms consisting of ice and snow, but mostly ice.  I hate ice storms!!  But, that is mostly what a Kansas City winter is like, ice, ice and more ice!  Anyway, in the past two days things had cleared up a little, the roads were okay and most businesses had plowed their parking lots and the sidewalks where cleared off...or so I thought.  As I was walking from my car to the studio, I carefully picked my way through the slick patches that still remained.  Having fallen more than once in my life, I was not anxious to do it again!  Once I got to the sidewalk I thought I was home free, I only had like ten more feet to go.  When all of a sudden, my feet totally went out from under me.  As I was rapidly approaching the concrete, I couldn't help but realize that all of this was taking place right outside the display window for the studio.  Great, there goes my pride!!  As I was flat out on the concrete with my purse and teaching supplies having slid away from my grasp, I also realized that half of my Venti Caramel Macchiato was now all over my pants.  Could this work day get any better??  Ryan, (a guy that I work with) came to my rescue and helped me up, along with a random lady that was waiting for her child to finish lessons.  It was very interesting!  As I limped to my studio, and continued to reassure everyone I was fine, I was suddenly aware of sharp pains coming from my right leg. By this time I had ten minutes left before my first student arrived.  But aside from spending the evening in pretty much soaked pants, scraping up my leg and sustaining a few bruises, I am just fine.  It really is a miracle that I didn't smack my head on the concrete, it was just God's grace that protected me from further harm.  So, I would rather walk around like an old lady for a few days as opposed to spending time in the hospital with broken bones!  Pretty sweet deal!  Anyway, I am sure that I will have another embarrassing story soon, it's God's way of keeping me on my toes!

I am proud!

Today being Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I am very proud to be exactly who God created me to be.  I am part of such a rich culture--a culture that has fought it's way from the very bottom of society and still fights for justice today.  The life of Dr. King is so convicting to me.  Honestly, if I had lived in the 50's and 60's where Jim Crow laws were a way of life and Blacks were treated worse than animals, I would be so very angry.  When a person has their dignity stripped away and are constantly looked down upon, anger is a natural response.  But, I look at the lives of those like Dr. King and Rosa Parks and I see the silent strength that shone through their actions.  Violence never solves anything.  It is not the answer.  But, the issues remain the same.  It is not acceptable to sit idly by waiting for everybody else to fix the problem.  Action is key.  Jesus was and is a Man/God of action.  I have embraced myself and how God has made me. I am committed to being a voice to speak the message of change to the world.  I want to be a shining light for all to see.

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" is the National Anthem for African-Americans.  The words are so rich and full of meaning.  At this time in my life, I am so blessed by these words.  My prayer is that God will minister to your heart through these words and that we would all learn to trust Christ in the hard times--He is so faithful!

Lift Every Voice and Sing
Words:  James Weldon Johnson

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered;
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.