90 Days of Online Dating: Decisions.

First, an apology: do you know those moments when you forget if the day is Tuesday or Wednesday? I did that last week, except I thought that Friday was Tuesday. Pulling two sixty-hour work weeks with my church's Christmas pageant on top of it made me hurt. I had to cross off my lesson plans so I wouldn't make copies for the wrong days!

Not blogging for two weeks was completely unintentional. It just kind of happened as the clock kept moving and there weren't enough hours in the day.

So much has happened since I last posted. Let's catch up!

The biggest thing would probably be my recent acceptance into graduate school at North Carolina State University! This is a move that I've been considering for about two years (seriously for a year) and decided to take a leap of faith and try. I got an email a few weeks ago letting me know that I was accepted and I've enrolled in my first class. I am beyond excited (and more than a bit nervous) about this new adventure. I will be studying Literacy Education for K-12. This will enable me to do small group education one day and to work one-on-one with struggling students.

And, yes, I am currently an educator in North Carolina. And, no, the news has not been lying to you about our current working conditions. However, my heart lies in my classroom and until there's no fight left in me, I'll keep fighting the good one.

On that note, I have survived twelve more days with my kiddos. Some moments I truly don't know how I did it. Others, I'm so in love with my job and the little people I get to work with that I could weep for joy.

My church's Christmas pageant was last weekend and my amazing drama team rocked it! I loved working with that group of people and seeing them all come together as one. 

That's enough about me...let's talk about dating!

Unfortunately, I have no jolly good news to share on that front. Even though I haven't been faithful with the blogging, I have been faithful with the online dating. For the most part, these guys are weird.

However, there is Chad.

Chad messaged me about three weeks ago with an interest to know about growing up in a small town (a little factoid I share about myself on my profile). We started chatting about large families and he told me about growing up across the United States (military family). We shared Thanksgiving traditions -- it was a week before the holiday -- and I regaled him with stories of my students who had truly lost their minds on account of the upcoming five-day break. 

Our emails haven't been consistent recently; regardless, they happen. 

Chad is also the oldest of three and while his family spreads over multiple state lines, they're very close. He works at his dream job and loves doing things in the woods. I'm gonna be honest, y'all, I don't do nature, but I'm all about a man who wants to spend his time outdoors. You wear that plaid, honey!

You couldn't see it, but I just snapped my fingers in a "Can I get a witness?" fashion. Moving on...

Here's the thing about Chad, though, guys: he doesn't love Jesus.

My parents had this saying when my siblings and I were growing up: "Don't wait until you have to make a decision to make it." Meaning, you need to decide the answers to the serious questions before you get caught in the situation. If you wait until you're handed the cigarette to decide if you want to be a smoker or not, you're more than likely going to become one. If you're already in the backseat with the guy...well, bless your heart.

A year ago I dated a guy who I thought hung the moon. He gave me the tingles and challenged me and made me think and listened really well. However, I knew from our first date that we weren't going to be a forever kind of thing. He was too wishy-washy in his beliefs and I firmly believe in being equally yoked. I tricked myself into thinking other things because I was too busy admiring his beard and holding his hand, but I knew the entire time that the situation would do nothing but end with a broken heart on my end. 

If I had held on to my convictions a year ago,  a lot of things would be different. I've learned to learn from history because it will surely repeat itself.

As much as he makes me laugh and as much as I like talking about all of our travel adventures, Chad's gotta go.

Somewhere out there is a man with a beard and soul that loves Jesus. The plan is to wait for him, and I'm gonna stick with the plan.