The Mason Family

Sorry for the Delay.....Again

2007-01-17T16:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I really had good intentions on keeping up but things changed a little. Unfortunately during the holidays our house (that we are renting) was broken into and our computer was stolen. :(
We have not replaced it yet and so I will have to blog from work.

I will work on the picture thing but I will have to figure it out first. :)

Thanks for checking in. I will try to make it worth your time.

Not today though. :)

I love you all.

Let's Catch Up

2006-12-18T11:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I am bad at keeping up. I hope that the few of you that read this will still continue to check from time to time but I really don't blame you if you don't! :)
I will take this time to catch you up on what is going on with us.

We are in the process of building a new house! The foundation will be poured sometime in the next few weeks. Move-in is projected as May 11th. We are so excited! We will also be sharing a back fence with some of our very best friends (who just had a beautiful baby girl on Dec. 6th). This is definitely an exciting time. We got to go the design center on the 4th to pick out our colors and upgrades. It was soooooo much fun! It is amazing that we are able to buy so soon in our marriage. God is really blessing us.

Babies:
There are so many new babies in my life- I LOVE IT!!! Here is a list of the babies 1 year or younger that I know right now:
Emily Grace
Evan Joy
Abby Jean
Trenton Herb
Taylor Brooke
Ethan Miles
Owen Cooper (I have not gotten to officially meet him but I have seen pictures.) :)
Paul Jr.

These are the ones coming in the next year:
McKenna Noel (Feb.)
Jadyn Roman (Mar.)
Baby Girl Bendoski (May) (don't know her name yet)

It is so much fun seeing all these babies and of course holding them. It kind of gives me the bug but we're not quite ready yet. :)

Christmas break:
We are officially on Christmas Break. I have two weeks and husband has three. I was jealous at first but after realizing that I get out for the summer a week earlier then he does I felt much better. The funny thing about Christmas break is that we are extremely busy. The great part is that we get to spend time with family and friends. We will hopefully have a little time for relaxing as well.

The Christmas Musical:
I was blessed to get to be a part of the annual Christmas Musical at church. It was quite an experience. I was one of the narrators alongside my wonderful friend, Steve. We had a great time practicing and listening and figuring out just how to say the powerful words we were given. It was great! The performance was last night and it went perfectly. The soloists were beautiful, the sound guys amazing and the choir was wonderful. Sandra put together a fabulous production. She is sooo talented. Thanks for letting me be a part. I will never forget it.

House, babies, vacation, and the musical. Those are some of the things going on in our life for now.

I hope you have a blessed holiday time with your family and friends.

House Shopping

2006-10-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

Husband and I went house shopping for the first time ever on Sunday. Friends of ours are building and so we decided to look into it. It was a lot of fun. It was fun to dream about our future family in the different homes that we walked through. It was exciting to think that one day it might be a possiblility. For now, we are renting a great house. We love it and are especially glad that we are not homeless. It would be nice if we didn't have to spend so much money in rent, though. That's a bummer!

Music

2006-10-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

I love music!

It has a way of inspiring me and touching me in a way unlike anything else.

I love listening to KLOVE every morning. Everything on that channel is "positive and encouraging". I love that my husband listens to the same channel on his way to work. Many times we talk about songs we have heard and decide that we like knowing the other is listening to the same thing.

I love listening to others sing. AH, TC and the entire L clan are some of my favorites.

What made me want to write on this today is that my 6th graders were in charge of chapel at school today. I had (attempted) to teach them some new devotional songs this week. They sang them for the whole school this morning. It was wonderful. I had a hard time holding back the tears. There is just something so beautiful about kids singing to the Lord. I watched as some smiled, some closed their eyes and some tapped their foot to the beat. It uplifted my entire day.

Thank you Lord for that precious blessing of music and, of course, for my 6th graders!

Faith

2006-09-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

Just this last Sunday at church we discussed the level of faith that we have in God. We were discussing areas in our lives that we lack faith. I mentioned my worry about finances. This is such a ridiculous thing for me to fret about because God ALWAYS provides!!! In fact, He answered our prayers just yesterday. S found out about a raise that was approved for this year. He did not even know there was one in the works. What do you know? Yet again, God provides. On Monday, I was stressed out because we had to put new tires on my car. On Tuesday, God said, "Here let me take care of that." I know that most of you out there have had similar situations. Please share them with me because even though I have experienced God's faithfulness, I , at times, am faithless. Thank you God for continuing to show me your love and grace even though I get caught up in my head over things you are in control of.

Today's Thoughts

2006-08-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we have not gotten very good about regular blogging. We are trying to and we love to read other people's blogs but sometimes it is hard (for me, at least) to find something profound or humorous or cool to say. I have decided that it could take too long to come up with any of those things so I am going to blog about whatever I feel like right this moment.

Here goes....

I will be working on my credential this year and I am looking forward to getting that underway and out of the way. The program is CalState TEACH and so far it has been a great experience. The people who work for the CalState TEACH program are great! They are helpful and efficient and they do not have thousands of other students to deal with. There is only one hitch. The program is located on the campus of a certain CSU school in the area. This certain school is not very good at communicating or helping people . Yes, I just made a huge generalization but my overall experience over the past years has been stresssful... to say the least. And once again they have stressed me out. Hopefully it will all work out eventually but waiting until it does is not a happy place to be. Pray for me... and my husband. :)

On a happy note, school has started and I am teaching 6th grade this year. It is such a different world from 1st grade and I am enjoying it thoroughly. I know it is only the beginning of the second week but I am really excited at all the plans and learning that are in the works. My classroom is located in between 2 of my very good friends and co-workers. I share a hallway with a certain associate minister and music minster both of whom I really love to see everyday. I have a boss who listens and is willing to help with any and everything. And I have a class of 14 sixth graders who are AWESOME!!! What can I say.. I am truly blessed!

On another happy note... I am so in love with my husband!!! I am sure some of you are saying "you better be" and rightfully so. I am just so happy and humbled by the way God works in my life. He put S in my life several years ago. We became best friends and almost 6 years later were married. GOD IS GOOD!!!!! Thank you God for my wonderful, godly, thoughtful, caring (and of course handsome) husband.

Ok, so those were some things that were on my mind today.

Thanks for stopping by.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! No, It's the return of School!

2006-08-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

"School's out for Summer, Summer, Summer!" These are the words that I sing everytime that school is out for any length of time, longer than a weekend. Our Summer has been flooded with events, one of them being our marriage, and now we seem to be facing the return of school which seemed to be so far off. Where did our time off go? Sure we spent many a morning sleeping in and not showering until after noon, but who can remember those days. We may have gotten to see about 244 episodes of Saved By The Bell and Dawson's Creek(Back to Back 8-10am), but the looming shadow of teacher meetings blur those memories as well. Pismo, Disneyland, Yosemite Bible Camp, Weddings up the ying-yang, Bar-b-ques...We did so much, but it seems like so little when we think of having to start moving desks, creating bulletin boards, inventing new and exciting lesson plans...and most importantly, starting over with a new batch of students that do not know the "Mason" way of doing things. No more Summer mode, I'm in drill sergeantesk teacher mode. But really, what am I saying? I almost forgot the entire reason for becoming an educator. It was not the hours, weekends and holidays off, benefits, or even our huge Summer vacation. The reason we became teachers, as all of the other teachers out there can attest to, is to mold young minds and pass on knowledge from every breath that comes out of our mouths. Our passion for learning trumphs all else! But if Summer were just a little bit longer, wouldn't that be great too?

Cleaning House

2006-07-11T23:10:00.000-07:00

We have been trying to finish unpacking and putting our house together. The back bedroom has been full of boxes and things for a while now and we are slowly trying to find the room that is in there somewhere. Today we worked for several hours. As I looked back over the room I noticed that it did not look much different than when we started. I was baffled. There were broken down boxes in the hallway and books on the bookshelves and blankets in the closet, but the room was still full!! How could that be possible? We had worked so hard and gotten no where. :(

Am I crazy to think that this is how it is in life sometimes? We work hard to lose weight and it takes FOREVER for any progress. We work hard to keep up on the laundry and yet there is always more to be done. We work hard to study and graduate from college only to find out (from a certain local university) that you have another class to take.

We study and pray in an effort to build a relationship with God only to find that this is a neverending process. I have learned from many great people in my life that this process is worth it.
I have recently been challenged to start the process again. I have been relying on previous study and relationship. I need to clean out the back room. Even if it takes a while for progress to be made, I need to begin. The great thing about God is that He is there through the whole process. Even when I decide to take a break, He does not leave me.

Thanks to two special people (SH and ST), who did not even realize what impact they were having. God has used you 2 to open my eyes and heart and encourage me to expand my knowledge and relationship with Him. Thank you!!

Darla Mason :)

In The Beginning

2006-07-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

We have decided to officially enter the blogging world.

For those of you that do not know, we were married on June 10th of this year. So, we are just beginning our married life. So far so good (1 month on Monday). Please keep us in your prayers. If you would like to view our pictures you can do so at http://www.pics-perfect.com/ Go to view my photos, choose darla and shane wedding and the password is Love.
Thank you to all of you who were a part of our day and our lives. We are so blessed.

We were able to go on an Alaskan Cruise for our honeymoon (thanks to Shane's parents). If you have not done that yet, you should. It was wonderful. We saw glaciers, brown bears, bald eagles, humpback whales, orcas and best of all the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show in Ketchikan.

When we returned to Fresno, while we were glad to be at our new home together, it was a little disappointing to experience a temperature increase of 40+ degrees!!! But it has been great settling in and seeing our family and friends again. It was special to worship together last Sunday for the first time as husband and wife. This is a summer of new beginnings for us. We hope that it will be one of continued growth in our relationship with each other and with our Lord. We look forward to all He has in store for us.