Dancing kids, country music, and so on...

Well, Peter and Sheryl were out of town last week for most of the week...so Sheryl's mom came in and we took care of Makena together.

Makena now has five copies of that crazy t-shirt and she wore them ALL last week!! She also came down with an ear infection and the croup while her parents were out of town and so she stayed home with me and her grandma a couple of days last week and two days with me so far this week...and more than likely will stay home tomorrow too!!

Well, even though Peter and Sheryl are not fans of country music...they may end up with a daughter who is...if she sticks around me too much longer!! Makena LOVES to get down to country music ( I will have to see about posting a video on here of her getting down one of these days)...and has even hollered "yee-haw" a few times in the car....hehehe!! I may start playing some of my WOW cd's too...just for some variety...and cause my former nanny charges (Sera and Skye) loved to listen to them so much in the car back in the day!! They would specifically request..."play the spinning around song" or "play the yeah-yeah song"!! Hehehe!!

Well, last weekend we started addressing envelopes...and this weekend we hope to get the invitations printed. Brack thinks I am the coolest fiancee for letting him "evite" a bunch of friends from tehC...instead of sending them traditional mailed invitations. However, I said that family, the wedding party, and anybody who would consider evites tacky should get a regular invitation. So anyway, we are sending both invitations and evites off by the beginning of next week at the latest...yay!! We also went shopping for the attendants gifts and I am proud to say that I have MY attendants gifts bought...at least!!

Good news...the majority of the things I had to leave behind in Romania is coming!!! YAY!! My fam was supposed to bring it in the fall when they came for the wedding...but now that they are moving back themselves there didn't seem to be any way for the stuff to make it back...which was both annoying and disappointing...as that stuff accounts for about a third of my worldly belongings...one third being in storage in East Texas...the other third being either at my live-in job or over at Brack's apartment!! Well, now it seems that most of it WILL be making it's way back to me by way of other missionaries...with the exception of my sewing machine (the loss of which is a bit disappointing...but, oh well)!!

Anyway...I decided that my blog NEEDED updating...so this is it...

I will come back later to fill out the survey that has been making the rounds...gotta go "steal" it from one of the girls!!

Meanwhile...I am listening to Gretchen Wilson. Those of you who pick on me for listening to her...you be nice!!

Currently Listening To: Here For The Party by Gretchen Wilson

I Can't Sleep...

I am tired but can't sleep...so I just decided to change the look of my blog...and blather on a bit too!!

How many of you have had to deal with a kid having an all out temper tantrum? Yesterday I went to Ross to see about buying a couple pairs of capris for wearing while doing my nanny job...cooler than jeans, but covering more than my shorts do...and the only ones I brought back from Romania with me were of the pretty short variety!! Anyway, while I was there someone's little girl got REALLY mad and started a screaming fit...and it went ON AND ON!! The parents really didn't deal with the screaming until it really started getting on people's nerves. I swore then that MY future children will never get away with that!!

THEN today I was the one who had to deal with a temper tantrum. Makena has a favorite t-shirt that she loves (it makes no sense, since she has such cute clothes from some pretty nice stores...but this is just a generic tee from her daycare). Anyway, she wore it today and all was well...UNTIL bathtime rolled around...then the fit started!! She began screaming for the shirt and would not be distracted. I even tried putting bubbles in her bathwater, but to no avail...she kept crying and screaming till I thought she was gonna make herself sick!! She finally calmed down fortunately after her bath so that she was no longer screaming when her parents got home...but she was still whiny and cranky...meh!! Again, I swore that my future children will never get away with that!!

In other news...Brack has strep and I haven't got to see him in two days...I miss him. At least there is the phone, though convos have to be kept short so as not to strain his throat. It is now 87 days till the wedding and there is still much to do...but at least we have the church, reception hall, honeymoon locale, and my dress squared away.

We are all registered too...at Bed/Bath/Beyond, Walmart, and Amazon.com. Brack of course had to add a few joke things to the registry ;-P Last night I got about 70 packets of bird-safe rice made up...yeah, I know it's a bit early...but I felt the need to do SOMETHING and get it checked off my list. I bought the petals for my flower girls, a toss bouquet, and the garter (the "something blue"), and the cake knife and server. The glasses for the toast we ended up getting at IKEA...a totally cool store, in my opinion.

BTW...Brack got a haircut...he is shaggy no longer...it's short and spiked now...

There are some weird things on TV at night...like plastic surgery, "In Living Color", and lots of infomercials...

Tomorrow I need to burn a cd for Jess...it will have some Romanian and Spanish songs on it...hehehe!!

Okay, I ramble...gotta try to get some sleep now...maybe I'll be able to sleep now...

Currently Listening To: Somebody To Love by Queen

WOOOOT!!!

WOOT!! Well, this week's goal was deciding about a dress. So I went to this dressmaker on Thursday...she does awesome work...I had seen her fashion show at the Dallas Bridal Show last month.

What she told me is that she could do a very simple medieval style dress WITH the sheer long sleeves like I wanted but WITHOUT the lacing in the back like I wanted...out of a softly draping fabric that was reversible (I could either go with the silky shiny side, or the soft crepe-type side) and she would trim the bodice and the sleeves with some lace from the Phillipines. The price she quoted to me for the custom-made dress, with two pressings and the bustling...was $389 plus tax. Sounds awesome, right?

But I still wanted to explore my options...so Brack and I hooked up with the new Scumblats yesterday so that Jess and I could check out more dresses while the guys hung out. The list of places to check out were Alfred Angelo, David's Bridal, and Group USA. So anyway, at Alfred Angelo I tried on two dresses just for fun (the moms would def not approve of them--one was strappy and one was strapless--but I thought they were cute). The third dress I tried on was GORGEOUS!!! It was not white, but rather what they called "candlelight"...and it was WOWOWOW!! Jess and I both agreed out of all the dresses we saw yesterday....that was the most gorgeous (see pic above--the dress above is white, though)!!Unfortunately...the price was not so "gorgeous"...it was $869!!

So then we headed over to David's Bridal. We found several possibilities and I wanted to try them on...but their customer service left something to be desired!! Finally they let me have a room. First dress...strapless, but with a lace "coat"-type thing that has a train...also gorgeous...also expensive at $649!! I followed that one up with a couple of nice ones that were on sale...but they didn't just scream out to me....so I moved on.

The next one, I have to admit...when I first looked at it...it didn't just stand out to me as spectacular...then I put it on, added a tiara and a veil...and VOILA...a princess was looking back at me in the mirror!! Seriously, I have felt conflicted about the whole wedding thing. I think secretly every girl wants to feel like a princess on their wedding day and I am no exception...but I detest frou-frou and floof!! This dress however was perfect...enough to make me feel like a princess without feeling like I am drowning in floof!!

I went ahead then and tried on the last one...which was very similar to the one that the dressmaker could make for me...and it was nice, but didn't have the same oomph as the previous dress...besides the fact that the wedding is in three months and they didn't have it in my size!!

So I decided that I really didn't care to look any further and to go with the dress that made me feel like a princess!! The dress was originally priced at $699, but had been marked down to $199...then the girl came back and said it was on sale for even less...it was one of the ones on sale for $99!! Then when we got up to the register it rang up as $99 exactly...I had forgotten that it is tax-free weekend here!!

So now I have my dress!! It will need some hemming...but my mom can do that...she did my sis-in-law's dress hem the night before the wedding (when the dressmaker had goofed the hem length). I will also still have to pay for the bustling and pressing...but at $99 for the dress...I can afford to pay a little for those things!!

Another WOOT---this one from last week...

We decided before trying to order invites out of a catalog and hoping that the printers would get everything right and back to us really quickly...I mean...those invites need to go out in like a month...that we would check out making our own.

So we headed to Michael's and started looking at craft paper and trying to figure out how exactly were we gonna do this. Brack headed off down another aisle and I (being the talkative, outgoing person that I am) struck up a convo with a girl who was picking out some scrapbooking stuff. I told her that we are gonna try to make our own invites and such and she told me what she had done for her wedding...then she headed on around the corner. Later, when Brack and I were still trying to figure out how we are gonna do the invites, she came back and told us they have kits for printing up your own invites...with response cards and envelopes and such...a few aisles over!!

Well..to make a long story short...we got 100 blank invites...that ended up being on sale...for like $40!! AND we found matching blank programs too!! How awesome is that?

Currently Listening To: Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield

What? Again?

What can I say? I blogged yesterday...I'm blogging again today....this is most DEFINATELY a record!!

Well...I got my housework at my nanny job done first today...so I wouldn't have to feel guilty about wasting time on the computer. Now everything is done except putting away the laundry that is drying in the dryer. WOOT!! Only problem is...with all this free time (either before I get my work done or after...it doesn't matter)...I am getting bored!!

I have already checked all three of my email accounts, checked out my MySpace and Yahoo 360 and Hi5 stuff, and looked around on tehC and tehBean already...and it is just now ALMOST noon!! I have like three hours now to kill before getting ready to pick Makena up from daycare. I COULD work on wedding stuff...but after the bridal show I am a bit burned out on all that for a few days at least.

I think I will go read for a while. The book I am currently reading is an end-times book called "The Third Millenium" and it is kinda interesting. Only problem with it is that it was written a while back and in this book the rapture happens on September 25, 1995!! I don't know about you...but it IS a bit funny reading a book in 2006 that is telling you that the rapture already happened 11 years ago!! Hehe!!

Anyway....to those of you who subscribe to my blog who also read Scum's blog...sorry!! I can't be as entertaining about housework and being bored as she can....she's just good at it!! Okay...I'm outta here!!

Currently Listening To: Stomp by God's Property

Woot!! I'm blogging again...

Okay, so yeah...I decided to blog again already...this COULD be a record...I don't know...I don't feel like scrolling back through my old posts to find out!!

So Brack and I went to the Dallas Bridal Show on Saturday...lots of walking around, lots of handouts, lots of people peddling all kinds of expensive junk to make wedding budgets creep up into the five digits...which Brack and I both think is nuts!! We arrived back to Brack's apartment with like three bags of fliers and catalogs...but I did get a teddy bear and some candy...which was cool. We also MIGHT have a possibility for my wedding dress...made to order the exact way I want it...WOOT!! So that was cool...tiring, though...

Yesterday...after 6 straight hours at the church (which I don't know if I will ever get used to)...we went out to celebrate Brack's b-day with Adrian, Todd and Leah, and the new Scumblats... It was a very yummy lunch with enough leftovers for dinner...yay!! Ran some of the cool ideas for the wedding by Leah...and she agreed they were cool...so I'm pumped about getting things in order for the big day!!

Well, gotta go vacuum the house, put sheets on beds, and move clothes from the washer to the dryer...and get it done quickly before picking up Makena. My employers had given me a list of things they wanted done around the house and how often they wanted it done and I had just kinda divided the chores up throughout the week. However, now that they have asked me to give them a copy of my chore list with what days I am doing what...there can be no more of goofing off one day and making up for it the next....ahh, well!!

Currently Listening To: Como La Flor by Selena

Final Romania Newsletter

Dear Praying Friends,

First of all, I want to thank you for all your continued prayers and support these past few months—even when I haven’t been the most faithful in keeping you up to date with what has been happening!! You are very appreciated!!

To catch you up to date on the ministries that I was involved in—my English class went very well through the end of April and I was able to get close to my students. It was a very interesting situation for me, as I had never taught people that much older than me, but it went very well. I also continued to tutor/mentor one girl from the church until the end of May. Please keep Laura in your prayers as she has just finished high school and is preparing to take the baccalaureate exam to get into college—as this is an extremely difficult exam.

The home Bible study group I was involved in continued through mid-May, when the leader left for a few months to work in Spain, but I was able to keep in touch with the youth involved in the group even after that. My Friday Fellowships continued up till the end of March...when my roommate Meg headed back to the States and I moved to an efficiency apartment, but with that also I made sure to keep in weekly contact with my regular bunch of teens.

The outreaches with Livada Orphan Care that I was involved in—in Petelea and Zau—were discontinued for a time, from the end of April, so for the last little bit I was unable to get out to the children’s homes—but up until then I was there every week and had a great time with those awesome little children!!

And just to keep you up to date with the children at Kiwi House…though I haven’t worked there since January I have kept in touch with the directors and gone to church with the house parents…so I’ve been able to find out how things are going with the children…and was also able to stop by on occasion to see them. One more little one (Cristian) was recently adopted and another little one (Emanuel) will be adopted soon. They have also welcomed another little girl (Cosmina) into the home. Viorel had his second surgery on his mouth to correct the cleft pallet and now will be able to eat and talk normally. Alina is doing GREAT and you would never recognize her as that poor little baby with so many problems…as she is walking and eating perfectly fine now. Please keep Rosa and Andrei in your prayers though, as their mother doesn’t want them to be adopted, yet doesn’t want them herself!! These precious babies deserve the chance to go to a loving home of their own—preferably in a situation that will keep the siblings together.

My parents just recently returned to Romania!! My parents, Ed and Janis Seale, are career missionaries who have served God and started churches on the mission fields of Mexico, Romania, and Peru for the past 27 years and who have now settled near the city of Cluj in Romania to begin children’s ministries and to help in the works of two other missionary couples. My youngest sister Rebekah and my youngest brother Andrew are there with them and my sister Susanna is spending the summer with them before beginning a culinary arts course in Indiana.

Well, when a single girl goes to the mission field one of two things usually occur—either she marries, or she spends her life on the field as a “single lady missionary.” Well, this single girl will be single no more by the end of this year. Of course, I never expected this to happen. Here I am, just turned thirty, with no prospects when I left for the field, and not much of a chance to meet the right guy while in Romania.

But God knows what He’s doing and brought someone perfect for me into my life. We are both from Texas, both homeschooled in the same Christian homeschool program, and both with very similar goals in our life. I am so grateful to the Lord for bringing Brack St. Clair into my life. He is on staff at his church in Keller, Texas as the media ministries coordinator. We will marry in November of this year. I have returned to the States and now have a nanny job and am beginning with plans for our wedding. Brack and I would like to thank you all so much for the love, prayers, and support you have shown me and ask for your continued prayers on our marriage…that God will bless us as we continue to serve Him.

All for Him,
JULIE SEALE

Missionary No More

Well, today I send out my last newsletters...letting my supporters know I have left the field and am getting married. Kinda weird to think I'm done with all that....been a missionary kid all my life...on the field with my parents till I left for college and then planning for going myself since I finished college...and I only ended up staying on the field myself for one year!!

I guess it is kind of a bitter-sweet thing. I am SO excited that Brack and I are getting married and I hope and pray I make a good wife and hopefully (someday) a good mother. It IS a bit scary though too....uncharted territory....

Well, Brack gets back today from being gone AGAIN for a week (this time it was youth camp)....and we are gonna celebrate his B-day with Adrian, Todd & Leah, and Martin & Jess...probably Sunday afternoon. I sure missed him this week!! Tomorrow he is actually gonna go with me to a HUGE bridal show in Dallas...isn't that so sweet?

Anyway...gotta go get some things done before picking up Makena from her daycare and starting in with her on her afternoon routine. Just a few more hours till I see my guy!! YAY!!

Currently Listening To: What I Like About You by Lillix

Blah, Blah, Blah!!

Hey...yeah...updating my blog...will wonders never cease!! So anyway, hmm....Brack is back from choir tour and we hung out most of the weekend...when he wasn't having to run sound for a wedding rehearsal and wedding and meeting with someone for some contracting work!! Sunday we went out to eat with David and Jess after church and we girls had some fun picking on the guys about their "collections"!!

After that we went swimming for like three hours and got completely water-logged!! I got water up my nose and accidentally swallowed some of the chlorinated water...so for the last three days I have had a slight sore throat and sinus issues...but so has Brack and you know how misery loves company!!

We are such an exciting couple...seriously...the last three nights he has been working on some independent contracting stuff on his laptop while I read or watch TV or work on wedding stuff....it makes you wonder why in the world he even bothers to come pick me up every day after work just to sit together in the same room for a few hours and then turn around and take me home...except for the fact that we both just love to spend time together...even while doing our own things!!

Well, here it is, a quarter to twelve and I still have bathrooms to clean and floors to vacuum...and Brack is coming by sometime this afternoon to take me to the post office, cause I gotta mail a package off. Then about 3:30 I have to go pick Makena up from daycare and then it is playtime, and dinner for her, and the last minute straightening before her parents get home. And I think Brack and I are gonna have another exciting evening hanging out on the couch once again while he finishes up the project he is working on...and maybe watching a few more episodes of "Scrubs"....which he is trying to get me addicted to!!

Currently Listening To: Me And My Gang by Rascal Flatts

Meh!!

My entry for today is Meh. Why? You ask?

Meh....cause I miss my guy...who will be out on choir tour till tomorrow evening and it already been five days since I saw him last.

Meh...cause my eyes are achy...which means I have to wear my glasses...which I hate!! Meh....cause I have a headache....what is it with summer headaches?

To tell you the truth....it isn't all meh....my employers just bought a minivan so that there are now three vehicles...which means I will have a vehicle to drive. I seriously thought that they would have me drive the minivan...which wasn't a big deal to me. Any of you who were in ATI know it isn't any big thing for your first driving experience to be a 15-passenger van. And hey, anything beats driving my old beater of a station wagon with no A/C around in this over 100 degree weather!! But they actually have decided that my main vehicle to drive will be the car....which is a Lexus!! Not a bad way to get back in the groove of driving, let me tell you!! It drives really smooth...and the air conditioning is SUCH an awesome thing!! So yeah, it's not all meh...but now I have to go take some Excedrine for my head....meh!!

Currently Listening To: You're The One That I Want from Grease soundtrack

It's Been A While!!

Wow....much has happened since I last blogged!! I am now in the States once again...working as a nanny right down the road from my fiance!! I arrived back in the US on June 6th and have been pretty busy since.

Hmmm....to give you a general overview of just what I have been up to.....

We have registered at Bed, Bath and Beyond....still need to finish our other registries, though. We have found our honeymoon spot....awesome!! We have found our church...a little country church. I have got the perfect nanny job....very convenient and very flexible.

We also had the chance to go to the wedding of some friends...teh scumblat wedding in Longview. This was pretty cool as we got to spend some time hanging out with David (an old buddy of Brack's) and his wife Danielle and their kids on the way there. Then, during the wedding weekend I was able to meet so many cool people I had only known online before....Kates, Marks, Liz, Kat, Lora, David and Tiffany, etc. etc.

We had Mexican food on Friday night after the rehearsal and then went and saw a really goofy movie called "Nacho Libre". Then, after getting back to the hotel we girls (and Brack) went to the pool area and hung out till we got chased out....then we girls stayed up talking into the wee hours of the morning!!

Saturday was the wedding and it was beautiful and short!! It was actually pretty funny though cause David had said they weren't gonna stick around long after it was over...but we were all waiting on he and Jess at the last. After the wedding a bunch of us went to Texas Roadhouse to eat and throw peanuts...there was quite the peanut war going on!! Then Brack had to take off to meet up with the youth choir tour...but I went with a bunch of people to go bowling...quite fun...and I even got a strike...though my final score wasn't that impressive!! But it was fun....

Several of us then went on to Starbucks to get some caffeine and watch the night life of Longview...what there was of it!! Then it was time to head out back to the metroplex area...Slept in on Sunday and then went with Liz, David and Tiffany, and Adrian out to eat before moving in at my new nanny job. We ate at a nicer Italian place...but the crazy waitress didn't have a CLUE!! It was funny in a way...but still....

I got settled in here at my new nanny job and all is well...in fact, it is a bit quiet...not a huge amount of stuff to do when Makena is in daycare....it will get busy I am sure though...once the couple's new baby comes along in the fall!! Even with it being so quiet and stress-free though...I probably need to quit blogging and get the vacuuming done!! It is always a good thing when you get the things done that your employer asks of you, right?!! Anyway...sorry it's been a while...I will (hopefully) keep up my blog better now!!

Currently Listening To: Too Good Is True by Rascal Flatts

My Kitties are GONE!!!

Well, it had to happen sooner or later...I knew I was heading back to the States someday in the future when the kittens were acquired. But now that I am leaving here in less than a week....woohoo....I knew the kitties must go to new homes.

So Hayley went last week to the home of one of the youth pastors from church...I will miss her furry little face!! She was such a cute and cuddly little friend to hang out with when I'd head home to my apartment. But I know she will be loved and cuddled plenty as Tudor and his wife have two small children...and he is a big fan of kittens himself.

Starbucks hung out with me a bit longer...she just went to a new home two days ago. Some girls from Ella's church said they wanted a kitten...so they came and picked her up on Monday. Poor little thing was so scared to leave with them but I could tell that they would take good care of her...and maybe even treat her to popcorn on occasion!!

So now I am "home alone"...with no meowing and purring going on around me...wah!!! But I know that it is okay cause soon I will be a nanny with a cute little kiddo or two to take care of and will be near my loving fiance too!! Then come November... well...let's just say I won't need a kitten to keep me company in the evening anymore!!

I head out from here on Monday and fly back to the States from Bucharest on Tuesday...so in less than 6 days...I will be saying hello to my Someone face to face once again!! Can you believe how quickly all of this has happened? It still amazes me sometimes!!

PS....For those of you with a special interest in my kitties (Liz)...here is a link to some pics!!

http://www.ringo.com/explore/member/album.html?albumId=40067302

Currently Listening To: Crazy In Love by Beyonce