I am becoming a writer... (seriously this time)

I don't know when it happened or how but I think I am becoming a writer. I have tried many times to keep journals, to write stories, to write plays, to blog, etc. but right now in my life I seem to have a lot on my brain. I need to get it out. I feel like the best way to do that is put pen to paper (or characters behind a cursor as the case may be). 

I have no idea if anybody will want to read what I have to say, but I am just going to put it out here. I am not going to tag anybody. If you feel like commenting, please do - it will be much appreciated. I feel like I do have an unique life, so maybe it will be interesting to someone. Maybe it will be a blessing to someone. Maybe it will be helpful to someone. Maybe it will just be downright hilarious and ridiculous to someone. I don't know. I just feel like this is something God is nudging me to do and for once, I am going to try to listen to that nudge the first time (you know, before it becomes that smack up side the head that I get so often!)

Call it a blog. Call it a column. Call it a silly personal indulgence. Whatever you call it - this is what my writing will include. It will include how I deal with life. How I deal with life with MS. How I deal with life parenting an "adopted" teen that I did not give birth to, nor have I even known since her birth. It will include my life as a married Christian modern woman. It will include my life lived as one of the few white families in my inner-city neighborhood. I will share my love for my family, my friends, my neighbors, my city and my country. I will share my struggles as a lower middle-class, penny-pinching, coupon-clipping, change-saving, tree-hugging family. 

I will share me. Thank you for reading.

Mosaic Me

This was originally on facebook and I thought it was really cool, so I am sharing it on blogger, too!

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search (http://www.flickr.com/).
b. Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. Change rows to 3 and columns to 3 (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php).
d. Save the image and post it on this note!

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What is your favorite color?
4. Favorite drink?
5. Dream vacation?
6. Favorite hobby?
7. What you want to be when you grow up?
8. What do you love most in life?
9. One word to describe you?

There's an app for that... (a.k.a. My Tirade on the iPhone)

I am getting so tired of the iPhone app commercials! Is there an app for that? Maybe an app that would automatically turn off any TV when that commercial comes on? Or mutes any TV that airs that commercial and unmutes it when the commerical ends?

These apps are getting ridiculous. I love the Apple company as a whole, but I think with this iPhone business is going a little overboard and sometimes really lacks originality. Of course, by watching the commercials on TV, you'd think they were the first people to ever think of these concepts.

Going skiing and need to know the conditions on the slope? There's an app for that . . . and most phones have weather applications now. Big deal. I also have the Weather Channel and the internet at home. And I can't think of how many times I have just spontaneously decided to go skiing when I only had my phone to plan my trip.

Out to dinner with friends and need to know how to split the bill? There's an app for that . . . yes, it's called a CALCULATOR and every phone I've ever had has one.

I just checked out the Apple store online and I don't feel any better. Here are the Top 10 most popular paid "apps" right now:
1. LightBike - a game, ok, that's fine, people have games on their phones and it looked pretty cool actually.
2. Blocked - another game, looks like a new version of Tetris
3. Wobble.Bikini.Fun - an app that you can use to make your photo or parts of your photowiggle. Seriously, sounds like homemade portable porn to me.
4. Yo Mamma - an insult generator. If you cannot defend yourself with your own words without the help of an insult generator, then you have no business even operating a phone, since that requires words. Besides how could you use it anyway if you were on the phone when you get insulted . . . ?
5. White Noise - your own personal noise machine . . . you know, for when you need your phone to put you to sleep. I can't think of a time when this would be useful. But they are nice enough to let you choose your own noise - beach, sprinkler, crickets, thunder, fireplace, etc.
6. Days of Thunder - another game with great graphics and of course, it's motion sensitive.
7. iShoot - literally. It's a game where you shoot things.
8. Monopoly Here & Now - another game, another version of Monopoly
9. Bejeweled 2 - yet another game.
10. Typing Genius - to help you improve your typing on your iPhone & iPod Touch. Yes, typing on a phone or PDA is different, but on my Palm, that app was free. Hmm . . .

Top 10 FREE Apps
1. Fastlane Street Racing - yet another game, but at least it's free.
2. iSteam - I think this is just a wallpaper for your phone that looks like steam on a mirror.
3. Bounce On Lite - another game
4. Public Radio Tuner - hey, there are useful apps! Hooray! A radio tuner is actually something that would come in handy - and it's FREE!
5. iPickup - pickup line generator for the iPhone & iPod Touch. May help those guys that are a little less confident with the ladies. Although any guys that may be reading this, I don't know any girls that actually fall for that. If we are seriously looking for a guy, the corny, cheesy pickup lines are just gonna give something to laugh about when we get back to our girlfriends. But hey, it's free, so if you have an iPod or iPhone, go ahead and give it a shot.
6. Mood Phone - show your mood on your phone . . . for those days that your facebook status is just not enough.
7. Zombie Attack - free game to attack the zombie next door
8. Rolando Lite - free game
9. iHandy Level - one of the few useful apps for the iPhone. I have nothing bad to say about the level - I think that is actually very useful.
10. Doodle Kids - a painting/art program. Ok, that could be fun - I could see my adorably creative husband playing around with that if he had an iPhone. The problem I have is that it was designed by a kid for kids. Designed by a 9-yr-old, that's awesome, amazing, . . . but for kids? How many kids out there have iPhones? No, nobody answer that, please don't . . . too many kids have cell phones, so I do not want to know about kids having iPhones!

The Still Small Voice of God

Something amazing happened to me last week and I want to share it so that you all may be encouraged also. Just knowing that God can still speak to us makes me feel very comforted.

Last week I had to go and work at concert in Knoxville for Mocha Club. Mocha Club is an organization kind of like Compassion International or World Vision where you can sponsor a child for a set amount every month. Except with Mocha Club, it's only $7 a month and you can help the entire communities, not just the children. (If you more info on that, let me know & I'll blog about that later!) So I had committed to volunteer at the Mocha Club table at the Dave Barnes concert. The day of the concert we were really tight on cash. I was very stressed out about our finances and so was Skip. We discussed if I should even go. But I really felt like I needed to go and I really didn't want to let them down by not showing up (I had no idea if I was the only person or if there would be others or anything because I had never volunteered for them before, but I feel very passionately about their work, so I really wanted to be there.)

I filled up my car with gas, leaving only about $3.00 in my bank account. I packed food for dinner for myself, Catherine and her friend Kimberly, since I knew that we wouldn't have money to stop for food. 

We had fun on the drive up there, fun at the concert (discovered some great new bands!), and I, along with fellow Mocha member, Joe, signed up 15 new members for Mocha Club. Everything was going great. It was pretty late on the drive back and the girls fell asleep. So I was alone with my music. My MP3 player was on shuffle and at first, I was happy singing along with tunes from RENT, Moulin Rouge, some classics and my current favorites, and not having to skip anything because it wasn't cool enough for the 13-year-olds. 

Then several slow songs came on in a row, so instead having fun singing, I was suddenly alone with my thoughts. I started stressing out and worrying about the troubles that awaited me at home. Then I stopped myself and said a little chat with the Big Guy. I said "God, please just help me stay calm and take care of my family's finances, at least until next payday."

The next song to play was Blue October's "Into the Ocean" - life is so chaotic and overwhelming that I feel like I am drowning. Then played Starfield's "I Will Go" - I will go where You send me, Lord, because I am Yours. And then finally, Kayla McMean's "In the Calm" - I am calm because the Lord is near me, I will listen to You and You will take care of me always.

I was so overwhelmed with calm and peace about the whole situation. When I got home, I checked my account and found $300.00! Exactly enough that we needed for the bills that were due and a little left over for groceries. 

I just love how God provides for us and takes care of us if we just have a little faith.

Mrs. Panda

So for some reason, Mrs. Prather is hard for young elementary schoolers to say. And I have discovered that if I do not give myself a nickname, I get so many wild variations of my name, like Mrs. Panther, Mrs. Panda, Mrs. Painter, Mrs. Prither, and even one class where the teacher told them to call me Mrs. P. So now when I am in an elementary school as a substitute, I introduce myself as Mrs. Prather and tell them it's ok to call me Mrs. Prather or Mrs. Panda and that I will not answer to anything else. 

On many occasions, I have been asked "Can we just say Ms. P?" and I say, "No, you pee in the potty; I will not be Ms. P - that's gross!!"

So in every elementary school I have subbed, I am known as Mrs. Panda. Today, I was in my favorite class, Mrs. Kelly's 2nd grade at Normal Park. I have been with them about 3 times before, so they already know me well. When classes changed for math groups, there was a new girl. She came over to ask for help with a math problem and heard other kids calling me Mrs. Panda and asked me why. I told her that my real name is Mrs. Prather, but that's really hard to say so they call me Mrs. Panda. She closed her math book and turned around to go back to her desk. All of a sudden, she stopped and turned back around to face me, and with big thoughtful eyes and the sweetest, most innocent voice, she asks, "Are you married to Kung Fu Panda?"

I smiled at her, did a karate chop in the air, and said -- You'll never know :)

My new Husband. Isn't he dreamy?

Hope for Hollywood

I am relieved to know that all of Hollywood is not selfish and shallow and materialistic. I just watched 3 episodes of Home Sweet Hollywood (reality show about Tori Spelling and Dean Whatever-his-name-is and of course baby Liam). Yes this week's episode they threw a $20,000 birthday party for their one-yr-old Liam, but I can't say anything since I dropped a whole paycheck on my child's 13th birthday party. I took 4 girls, a babysitter, my husband, myself, and my parents to a resort for the weekend. Extragavant, yes. But thats just what we do for our kiddos - give them those awesome memories and all the special times that we can. And I bet if you compared income ratios, its pretty similiar. I mean we didn't have Lonni Anderson, Carmen Electra, and Denise Richards and the mountain of presents at ours, but hey that's their circle of friends. I was impressed that they also did not keep all the gifts. They kept a few things for Liam and gave the rest to charities that would give them to kids who didn't have any toys. I think that is really cool. And I also was impressed that when they were house-hunting, Tori really stressed about their budget and about not getting more house than they could afford. I can totally relate to that right now! 

As celeb reality shows go, I give Tori & Dean 2-thumbs-up!

Identity Crisis

So at what point in your life do you get to discover who you truly are? And what defines you? Is it just my beliefs that define me? Is who I marry & my family & friends that define me? Is it my job? My hobbies? The church I go to? How I spend my money? 

I am going through a huge transition period right now. I hope my identity isn't linked to my job. I just recently had to list every job i'd had since high school on a job application & I didn't see a single one that I truly enjoyed. There were several that I liked in the beginning or had some good days but none that I truly loved. (Except for Stagedoor - after my initial homesickness freak out - but they are only open for the summer so that's not pratical.) Most of you know that I am trying to start a new career and a new life for my family in Sevierville. I do like this job - its a lot of fun & I get to talk to lots of people but I'm just not making much money. I feel like every job I like doesn't pay and the jobs that pay well I don't like or don't qualify for. My biggest wish is that SOON I find that job that fits - doesn't have to be perfect but a salary would be nice :)